Thousands of pounds of food items donated to help fight food insecurity across NH
Granite United Way, the U.S. Postal Service, generous sponsors, and local volunteers joined forces this month in our Northern and Merrimack County Regions for the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is an annual event that happens on the second weekend in May. Letter carriers collect donations of non-perishable food items left at mailboxes along their daily routes, and local organizations and volunteers help to sort and distribute those items.
As the nation’s largest one day food drive, this collaborative effort helps to fill the shelves of food banks across communities. Across our two regions, we collected over 14,000 pounds of food!
Efforts like this wouldn’t be possible without our volunteers. In our Merrimack County region volunteers from the local community as well as corporate partners Lincoln Financial Group and Concord Rotary assisted in sorting collected items for distribution.
“For me, it’s all about being part of something BIG, working alongside my co-workers to support a food drive that takes place across the United States, all on the same day, year after year for a such a worthwhile cause,” says Jane Bedard of Lincoln Financial Group. “It was fun being a returning volunteer advising new volunteers on the techniques.”
In total, we collected and distributed over 7,700 pounds of food in our Merrimack County Region. That’s over 2,000 pounds more than the previous year.
“I am excited to participate in the Stamp out Hunger food drive each year as I know the labor I provide directly impacts a member of our community and helps to reduce food insecurity,” says Helga Bouchard, of Lincoln Financial Group.
The Northern Region was joined by a group of community volunteers that collected and sorted over 6,000 pounds of food. Volunteers like the Silver Riders, a local group of retirees that come together to ride their four-wheelers along the trails in the Northern Region, spent the day following the Letter Carriers from door to door collecting food.
“We volunteer to support our communities as best we can. As retirees, we value our local history and the fact that this is where we earned our living, raised our children, and made our homes," says Dick Huot of the Silver Riders. “We appreciate the effort of all those who work to make our communities better.”
This collaborative effort is made possible thanks to our volunteers, local partners, and generous sponsors at UFCW, AFL-CIO, CVS Health, Valpak, Vericast, Kellanova, Nathan Wechsler, Graphic Packaging, Second Start, the NH Food Bank, Harvest Christian Fellowship, and A House to Home Realty.