Letter carriers in the East Lansing area collected an unusual amount of outgoing mail Saturday - an estimated 10,000 pounds worth.
But it wasn’t a standard load of letters that filled mail trucks at the end of the day; rather it was a collection of nonperishable food items donated by residents who took part in the U.S. Postal Service’s one-day effort to “Stamp out Hunger.”
“That’s over 5 tons of food - not bad for a day’s work,” said Sandy Davenport-Kane, president of East Lansing’s Letter Carriers Union.
The annual food drive, now in its sixth year, is a national effort coordinated by U.S. postal unions.
“We do our drive at this time of year because it’s when food banks need it the most,” Davenport-Kane said. “People are great about donating food around the holidays, but those supplies are thinned out by now. And with kids getting out of school there are no hot lunch plans or things like that to help out.”
“Stamp out Hunger” reigns as the largest one-day food drive in the country, collecting millions of pounds of nonperishable items each year.
Items collected in the East Lansing area will be stored at the American Red Cross Food Distribution Center, 2116 Mint Road in Lansing. From there, they will be doled out to local food pantries and kitchens.
“All the food collected in a community stays in that community, which really puts a local focus on a national effort,” said Shelly Zamora, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Lansing.
Last year, East Lansing carriers collected more than 12,000 pounds of food, while residents in the Lansing area donated more than 130,900 pounds.
Although routes took a bit longer to complete Saturday as carriers collected the donated food, Davenport-Kane said nobody seemed to mind the extra load.
“It’s a different type of work,” she said. “It’s a labor of love.
“You just feel so good about doing something special like this.”
Residents who didn’t get a chance to donate Saturday may still place bags of nonperishable food items near their mailboxes or can drop off donations at the East Lansing Post Office, 1140 Abbott Road, through this week.
