National food drive is May 10: Help your community prepare

When you head to the store for your groceries this weekend, be sure and pick up some extra cereal, pasta and peanut butter to donate to those in need. You'll help improve preparedness in your community, and thanks to an upcoming national food drive, you only have to leave your contributions as far as your front door.

Next Saturday, May 10, is the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, the nation's largest single-day food collection event. To participate, leave bags of nonperishable, nonexpired foods next to your mailbox and your letter carrier will pick them up and deliver them to local food banks. Making a difference doesn't get any easier than that!

This year's Stamp Out Hunger campaign, organized by the U.S. Postal Service, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the Campbell Soup Company, is particularly important as rising food prices increase the number of U.S. families who are facing food insecurity and hunger. There are 35 million Americans who are hungry or living on the brink of hunger. Many of these people depend on food banks to ensure that they have enough to eat.

Along with helping provide for those in need, food banks play an important part in community preparedness. If there are 35 million people who already don't have enough to eat, what will happen when a disaster such as a hurricane, tornado or pandemic flu strikes? Demand on food banks will increase. That's why it is important to support our community food banks year-round.

Join Americans all around the country by contributing whatever you can on May 10. Whether you buy extra groceries the next time you shop or donate extra nonexpired canned goods you have in your pantry, every little bit helps and moves your local food banks one step closer to being prepared. Just leave them by your mailbox. No stamp required.

If you are not sure whether your letter carrier is participating in Stamp Out Hunger or if live in an urban area, contact your local post office. Interested in other ways to help food banks? Read our tips and help your community prepare.