Iowans are encouraged to leave food by their mailboxes this weekend as part of a coast-to-coast effort to fight hunger.
Randall Lein, a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service in Ottumwa, says Stamp Out Hunger was started in 1993 by the National Association of Letter Carriers to help people who are food insecure.
“It involves the local communities all across our country,” Lein says. “It is a nationwide event, and people can help by donating food by leaving it in or near your mailbox, and your local mail carrier will pick it up and bring it in.”
Lein says there are certain types of food they want people to donate tomorrow.
“We prefer non-perishable, unexpired food,” Lein says. “That can be canned goods. It can be boxes of cereal and things. We’re happy to take whatever’s available for us to give to those in need.”
According to Lein, the food is transported to the local postal office, weighed, and retrieved by the local Food Bank of Iowa branch. He says the most food they’ve ever collected in Ottumwa in one year was prior to the pandemic.
“Before COVID, we got up to over 20,000 pounds, over ten tons of food,” Lein says.
Since its inception, Stamp Out Hunger has collected nearly 2-billion pounds of food. To find out if your community participates, go HERE.
(By Ellis Codjoe, KBIZ, Ottumwa)