MAIL CARRIERS TO HELP ‘STAMP OUT HUNGER’ SATURDAY
Traveling from mailbox to mailbox, thousands of mail carriers will collect bags of food Saturday as part of an annual food drive to help local food banks.
Each year for the past 31 years, the National Association of Letter Carriers has collected millions of pounds of food during “Stamp Out Hunger,” the nation’s largest one-day food collection effort.
Residents countywide are being asked to leave non-perishable food donations by their mailboxes on Saturday morning. Many received brown paper bags, but those who didn’t can still fill their own bags to participate.
Later that day, about 2,600 U.S. Postal Service carriers will do double duty as they deliver mail while picking up the donations.
“We’re out there delivering the mail on a daily basis, so we see firsthand when the families are suffering,” said Ricardo Guzman, president of the local postal worker union branch. “This is our way of showing them that we care about them.”
Postal workers and volunteers will then deliver the donations to local food banks and pantries — like the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, which CEO Casey Castillo says serves more than 400,000 San Diegans each month.
“Most of them are considered the ‘working poor,’ so these are individuals and families that have jobs — maybe one or two jobs — and are still struggling to get by,”
Castillo said, “as well as seniors living on a fixed income.”
Castillo said they have begun serving more people lately due to the end of emergency food allotments, which more than 350,000 San Diegans have been relying on, according to Feeding San Diego’s 2021 estimates.
In March, the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program reverted to its pre-pandemic amount, cutting monthly grocery shopping support by
about $100 for individuals and $200 for families.
This — coupled with record-high inflation and rising food costs — has resulted in tremendous financial strain on thousands of local families, Castillo said.
“Food insecurity is not just an issue … for those who are unhoused, but is really impacting low-income earners across our region — seniors, students, many working families — who are just trying to find ways to help make ends meet,” San Diego Councilmember Kent Lee said Wednesday at a rally held at the food bank’s Miramar warehouse.
Nationwide, the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive has collected more than 1.8 billion pounds of food since it began in 1993. Last year, more than 78 tons of food donations were collected in San Diego alone.