Donate Food for Charity at Your Mailbox

McDonald's restaurants may proudly boast “Over a Billion Served,” but the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) can say the same when it comes to pounds of food collected for the needy.

Since 1993 the NALC has collected more than one billion pounds of food through its annual nationwide event, "Stamp Out Hunger" – America’s largest single-day food drive.

This Saturday, more than 1,500 NALC branches from every state, involving more than 10,000 cities and towns, will have more than 230,000 letter carriers collect non-perishable goods from people’s mailboxes.

Here in San Marino the said all the local mail carriers will be collecting food for a local food bank during their mail drop-offs Saturday.

Residents can leave non-perishable food in bags next to mailboxes if donations exceed the mailbox size.

Residents can also drop off food at the San Marino Post Office between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday. Just go to the dock area in the back of the post office and ring the buzzer.

What to Donate:

• Items like canned meats, fish, soup, juice, vegetables, pasta, cereal and rice.
• Do NOT donate items that are expired or are in glass containers.

According to the NALC, the need for donations is greater than ever. The organization stated, “According to the Agriculture Department's most recent study of food security in the United States in 2009, the number of Americans living in so-called 'food insecure' homes topped 50 million. Of those, 17.2 million are children.”

Join Stamp Out Hunger on Twitter to follow the national collection online as food is gathered this Saturday. 

Are you planning to donate food for Stamp Out Hunger? Tell us in the comments.