The Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is a nationwide initiative that aims to fight hunger and poverty in the United States. Started in 1993, this event has become the largest single-day food drive in the country.
📬 🥫 How does it work? Leave a bag of non-perishable food items by your mailbox, and your letter carrier will pick it up and deliver it to a local food bank or pantry.
📅 Saturday, May 13th
Local Impact
All food collected by the Concord Parkway office (28027) goes to Cooperative Christian Ministries (CCM) and all food collected by the Kannapolis office goes to CCM’s satellite pantry, the Kannapolis Food Pantry at West Point Baptist Church. The Salvation Army, Baptist Sharing House, Harrisburg Crisis Assistance, and Mt. Pleasant Food Pantries also benefit from this drive.
From 2015–2019, the Concord Parkway Office collected between 5,600 and 8,300 lbs. of food, averaging about 7,200 and the Kannapolis Office collected between 3,150 and 7,100 lbs., averaging 5,700. The drive was not conducted in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
- In 2022, the food drive numbers were way down, but they are hoping for a return to pre-COVID amounts this year.
This drive is critical as our community moves into the summer season when donations traditionally are down. All of CCM’s pantries have experienced a surge in the numbers of households seeking food assistance. Since January, the Crisis Center Food Pantry has served an average of 800 households per month, up 33% from the same period in 2022. Together with their satellite pantries, they are serving about 1,100 households a month.
FAST FACT: According to Feeding America, a national network of food banks, more than 37 million people in the United States struggle with hunger, including more than 11 million children.
Planning to visit? Tell ’em Cabarrus Weekly sent ya!
