Pat Barcas/staff photographer
Letter carrier totes are stacked inside a truck waiting to be unloaded at the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry. NALC’s annual food drive May 10 helped stock the pantry’s shelves.
By Pat Barcas
Staff writer
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Email Pat Barcas at pat@foxvalleylabornews.com
AURORA — It’s getting warmer out, and the Thanksgiving turkey is the last thing on anyone’s mind, but the demand for food at local pantries remains high throughout the year.
“We depend on donations such as this a lot. This time of year, donations are very important because the demand stays up,” said Kristan Ensminger, director of operations at Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry. “We get most of our donations throughout the holidays, but the demand is there all year.”
Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry was one of several area food pantries that received deliveries this week via the 22nd annual National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
The letter carriers from NALC branch 219 in Aurora collected 27,000 pounds of food along their route in Aurora May 10. An additional 23,000 pounds was collected throughout Oswego, Plano, and Montgomery. The food was to be distributed this week.
The Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, and is held annually on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.
“Donations were good this year, the economy is up,” said Margaret Parker, president of NALC branch 219, who said the donations matched those of last year. “We’re really happy with the participation from the elementary schools this year. It was a beautiful day for it, and we’re always happy to receive the food, and always hoping for more to feed more people.”
Last year, letter carriers collected 74.4 million pounds of food donations along their postal routes, the second-highest amount since the NALC’s food drive began in 1992. That brought the total to nearly 1.3 billion pounds for the food drive.
“Too many people in this country are still going hungry every day,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “It’s an honor to be able to help people in need by leading an effort that brings out the best in so many Americans. Six days a week, letter carriers see first-hand the needs in the communities where we work, and we’re committed to helping meet those needs.”
About 50 million people around the country are food deficient, including 17 million children and nine million senior citizens. With most school meal programs suspended during summer months, millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition, meaning food pantries fill a critical gap for families in need.
“The Postal Service’s universal network, reaching 151 million addresses six days a week, makes it possible for us to provide this critically needed assistance,” NALC food drive coordinator Pam Donato said.