MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The United Way of Monongalia and Preston counties encourages the community to participate in the largest one-day food drive in the nation—the United Postal Service Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Saturday.
Postal carriers will pick up nonperishable food items as they deliver mail.
Morgantown-based USPS worker Justin Jarman said this food drive is very important for food pantries across the country.
“Typically around the holidays there’s an influx of people giving to pantries because of the time of year,” Jarman said. “About six months later, May 9, those pantries start to diminish, so this one-day food drive extends that.”
Last year, collections in the Morgantown area set records, according to Jarman. Because of those donations six food pantries received a little more than 1,000 pounds of food each.
“Last year here in Morgantown we collected about 7,200 pounds of food, which was more than the years before,” Jarman said. “We were able to distribute that to six different food pantries here in Morgantown.”
Residents are asked to use plastic bags and not paper in case it would rain, and please don’t use a trash bag for donations. Jarman said during the day volunteers will meet carriers on their routes to empty donations from vehicles to make room for more.
“I suggest not putting it in a garbage bag,” Jarman said. “We’ve had that happen in the past, and we weren’t sure if it was garbage because a lot of people leave it near the mailbox, and we didn’t pick it up.”
Jarman said he hopes that community members will take part in a good cause.
“Leave it out wherever you get your mail, whether that’s a CPU, which are the big boxes with multiple mailboxes in them, or if you have a rural box, leave it out there,” Jarman said.
Jarman said your local letter carrier is honored to serve the community and those in need. He said this is in addition to the day-to-day relationships letter carriers have had in communities across the country.
“There are definitely stories across the country where a mailman has stepped up for people in their neighborhoods in a lot of different ways,” Jarman said. “It’s a job where you are pretty much part of the family.”