topic Re: Stamp Out Hunger in Community Chat

Stamp Out Hunger

QVCkitty1 — Tue, 09 May 2023 21:09:58 GMT

I don't know if it varies for different communities, but I got a card today announcing the mail carrier food drive. Your mail carrier will pick up bags of donated food left near your mailbox on the second Sat. in May which is the 13th. It's an easy way to donate and my carriers are really good at picking up the bags.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

Love my grandkids — Tue, 09 May 2023 21:13:07 GMT

@QVCkitty1 This event has been happening for many many years.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

ValuSkr — Tue, 09 May 2023 21:15:32 GMT

Mail carriers don't do that here, for some reason. That's okay, I donate to a food pantry from time-to-time.

Seems like birds and critters would get into food items left out by the mailbox.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

Meowingkitty — Tue, 09 May 2023 21:52:18 GMT

Our neighborhood has done it in the past but I think it's a pretty low participation rate. Plus the food would sit out in the sun, down the street until after 3:00, then sit in a hot truck for who knows how long. I won't give because I don't know if the mailman picks it up or someone just passing by would take it because my mailbox is 3 houses down.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

PA Mom-mom — Tue, 09 May 2023 21:57:30 GMT

@QVCkitty1 Thanks for posting. I saw a post about this by @catter70 in an unrelated post. Ran out and got my food items, and they are sitting in the foyer, ready to go. I did check with my PO to make sure they are participating.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

Love my grandkids — Tue, 09 May 2023 22:00:24 GMT

@ValuSkr The items are non-perishables and left in grocery bags during the day. Have never seen birds or critters get into any of it in 20 years and I always keep an eye out.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

GenXmuse — Tue, 09 May 2023 22:29:39 GMT

Thanks for the reminder. I thought it was coming up soon and have started bagging things up.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

OKPrincess — Wed, 10 May 2023 01:13:25 GMT

In the past, I have received a card and participated.

I'll be watching the mail for a reminder card.

I never saw who picked up the groceries but I figured someone from USPS.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

QVCkitty1 — Wed, 10 May 2023 01:57:02 GMT

@Love my grandkids wrote:
@QVCkitty1 This event has been happening for many many years.

@Love my grandkids , I know.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

kate2357 — Wed, 10 May 2023 02:51:08 GMT

Our whole neighborhood participates every year with this food drive. They have a special mail truck that comes around as we pretty much fill the entire truck up. We have someone who is on look out and then will text a few volunteers to help get everything loaded into truck.

Our neighborhood has 3 to 4 food drives every year. 2 are sponsored...postal is one, fire department is the other. Then we have 2 to fill in for other times of the year.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

speedy girl — Wed, 10 May 2023 03:00:22 GMT

I've been donating to this for as many years as I can remember and never had any problem. In fact the mailman always seems very friendly to me, like maybe he appreciates the donation. I like doing it as it goes right to the people locally.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

kitty60 — Wed, 10 May 2023 19:58:13 GMT

Yes, this has gone on for many years. Having worked this food drive for more years than I care to remember, please...don't just clean out your cabinets with things that are outdated. When the food is transferred on Saturday from the post office to the facility where we, the local food pantry need to sort and stock,we need to go through and sort the items that have come in. We have a rule, if we don't even want to touch the can/jar, etc. toss it! It is unbelievable what some people donate. We then check for dates...we have seen dates over ten years out of date. Out is goes. For our facility we sort by the groups of food, box and then put into our inventory. Each year there seems to be less and less donated. We are grateful for all we get and we care about our clients and would never hand out something that would hurt them.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

ThinkingOutLoud — Wed, 10 May 2023 20:45:27 GMT

@kitty60 wrote:
Yes, this has gone on for many years. Having worked this food drive for more years than I care to remember, please...don't just clean out your cabinets with things that are outdated. When the food is transferred on Saturday from the post office to the facility where we, the local food pantry need to sort and stock,we need to go through and sort the items that have come in. We have a rule, if we don't even want to touch the can/jar, etc. toss it! It is unbelievable what some people donate. We then check for dates...we have seen dates over ten years out of date. Out is goes. For our facility we sort by the groups of food, box and then put into our inventory. Each year there seems to be less and less donated. We are grateful for all we get and we care about our clients and would never hand out something that would hurt them.

This is why I will only donate soap, laundry care items, etc to the local food bank now. I've eaten expired food and have been fine. Those dates are about freshness and even then it's arbitrary.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

shoptilyadropagain — Wed, 10 May 2023 20:45:10 GMT

I received my card and plastic bag yesterday with my mail. I had already collected a few items but wanted to grab a couple more things before Saturday but not sure I'll have the chance.

In our small town, they had volunteers driving trucks (one person driving and another to grab the bag)to go around and collect the donations. This was normally done in the morning. My dad used to help by driving his truck.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

ninjawife — Wed, 10 May 2023 20:45:29 GMT

@ThinkingOutLoud I have volunteered at our food bank many times. The food bank does accept food with expired dates. Each cateogory of food items are on a master list that indicates how much passed the listed expiration date the food can be safely consumed.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

Greeneyedlady21 — Thu, 11 May 2023 12:26:18 GMT

I have my food items in a bag ready to go. Bought them at the lowest priced local grocery store, they were very affordable.

This is a great thing that USPS does every year, I love to support it.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

Carolina925 — Thu, 11 May 2023 12:50:23 GMT

I've not gotten notice yet this year; I think they've not done it the past couple of years here (COVID related, I imagine.) If I put out something and someone else comes and takes it, I'm guessing they needed it so it doesn't bother me. I live in a town where we have a lot of food pantries; I don't have a lot of disposable income but I can say I've never been really hungry. Even when I was going through a divorce and had nothing, some food would always show up on my doorstep from somewhere. A local salon does food drives a few times a year and I'm shocked at the expired food that's donated. Shame on those who clean out their pantries with inedible products. I'll be looking forward to looking for our notice and going to the store tomorrow.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

Meowingkitty — Fri, 12 May 2023 23:04:14 GMT

I guess our mailman isn't participating. Informed Delivery said a card was in todays mail but when I looked there is no card. I can't imagine leaving food out in 95 degree heat for hours.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

RedTop — Sat, 13 May 2023 23:31:51 GMT

We did not receive any type of notice thru the post office, and to my knowledge there was little local advertising about this event.

I was not surprised when the mail carrier said we were the only ones on this route to donate food today. Very sad, as we are on one of the longest mail routes in the county.

Re: Stamp Out Hunger

Zaimee — Sat, 13 May 2023 23:42:48 GMT

Went out at 6 pm to see if my shopping bag was picked up. It was still there. I debated about bringing it in but glad I didn't as it was just picked up. Everything was non perishable as it is a delightful 80 degrees here now in So. Fla.