Donations, Strong Volunteer Sorters Sought For May 9 Letter Carriers Food Drive

By John Voket

Newtown Social Services is looking for a few strong individuals to put their muscle behind arguably the most important local food drive of the year. The Newtown Food Pantry, located in the town’s social services agency, is the sole local recipient of the nation’s largest food drive to combat hunger.

The National Association of Letter Carriers will be conducting its annual collection this year on Saturday, May 9. On that day, letter carriers and local volunteers will work together collecting nonperishable donations from homes as mail is delivered along postal routes

And while Social Services typically gets plenty of help from drivers and runners bringing donations in to the food pantry, it is equally important that the donations get properly sorted and stacked upon arrival, according to agency spokesperson Joanne Klopfenstein.

“We need volunteer food sorters, preferably strong individuals who can move heavy bins of food and empty garbage,” Ms Klopfenstein told The Bee this week.

Social Services Director Ann Piccini said that volunteers are welcome to stay for an hour or for the entire activity, which is expected to run from about 11 am to 6 pm.

“We will have free pizza and soft drinks,” Ms Klopfenstein added. “I’d like to have an idea of how many are coming, so I would appreciate a call from those who plan to help.”

Ms Piccini is particularly concerned because the postal service may not distribute postcards locally this year reminding residents to put food out on May 9.

“So we need to remind people to do that and to do it early,” Ms Piccini said.

Volunteer drivers will be circulating to pick up donated food as early as 10 am that morning.

Social Services is also reiterating a reminder put forth several weeks ago: “No expired or opened food, please.”

Last year, Ms Klopfenstein said, one-third of all the donated food had to be thrown away because of long past expiration or spoilage.

“We just want people to check the dates before they donate. While some food may still be consumable shortly after its shelf expiration, we were getting stuff that in some cases had expired years before,” she added.

The 17th annual NALC National Food Drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” is the largest one-day food drive in the nation. Carriers collected a record 73.1 million pounds of food in last year’s drive.

The drive is held annually on the second Saturday in May in more than 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Donations will be collected by more than 1,400 local branches of the 300,000-member postal union and delivered to food banks, pantries, and shelters that serve the communities where they are collected. Assisting in the effort are rural letter carriers and other postal employees, as well as members of other unions and thousands of civic volunteers.

NALC President William H. Young emphasized that as successful as the food drive has been in the past, it simply must be even better this year.

“Millions and millions of families are suffering — struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table,” Mr Young said. “More than ever, food banks, pantries, and shelters need our help this year. As families count on them for support, they’re counting on us and we must not back off on our commitment.”

Mr Young also noted that donations are particularly critical at this time since most school lunch programs are suspended during the summer months and millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.

That sentiment was echoed by Ms Piccini here in Newtown, where she has seen demand for food from the pantry double in just the past year.

“We do get busier in the summer, and before this food drive we would regularly run out of food during that time of year,” she said. “But since we started participating, we generally have food on hand until the start of the holiday season, which is our busiest period for donations.”

Anyone who is available to help as a sorter on May 9 should call or leave a message at Social Services: 270-4330. And anyone who misses the postal collection May 9 can bring food donations directly to the food pantry at Town Hall South during regular weekday business hours.