NALC Food Drive 2008
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
This year’s drive will be held on its traditional second Saturday of May, May 10, 2008.
Letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America are asked yearly to collect non-perishable food items donated by customers for the annual National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Food Drive—the largest annual one-day food drive in the nation. Postal employees in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands collect food and deliver it to local community food banks, pantries and shelters.
An estimated 35 million people face hunger every day in America, including more than 9 million children. This drive is one way to help those right in their own city or town who need help.
Entering its 16th year, long-time supporters of the drive include the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company, America’s Second Harvest, local United Ways, Cox Target Media and the AFL-CIO Community Services Network. Since 1993, the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive has collected over three-quarters of a billion pounds of food for community food banks and pantries. A welcome addition to this year’s food drive is a new, “official” logo, which incorporates the name of the union and also the “Stamp Out Hunger” slogan.
In 2007, more than 119 million postcards were mailed to customers in towns and cities throughout America letting them know how they could help. Each year, customers are asked to place non-perishable food items next to their mailbox before their letter carrier delivers the mail on the day of the drive. The letter carrier does the rest, taking the food to the Post Office where it is sorted and delivered to an area food bank or pantry. Postal customers of some New York City and Chicago areas where there is no mailbox collection of donations are asked to take their contributions to their local participating Post Office but will have an option of virtual Internet food drives to assist with collections for local food banks.
On the really grim side, today is my evil cat’s birthday. Zoe is a terror, and her litter sister actually gave someone a nervous breakdown. Zoe is one of these cats that will sit on a shelf and knock stuff off just to see what you’ll do. She’ll be 11 years old this year, I think. And she’s as evil today as she was when she was born. Evil. E-V-I-L.
Today is also the anniversary of my 2nd wife’s death. She died during a heart procedure. I’ve made sure she’s had flowers every year since 1987. It was really hard to deal with during the first years, but now I just get a little down. Sometimes I can remember her so clearly it’s like it was yesterday, and other times everything’s fuzzy. I do still miss her. I have a better portrait shot somewhere, I just can’t find it right offhand.
