May 10, 2023 • 7 mins
Saturday, May 13th is Stamp Out Hunger Saturday. It's the day postal employees represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers pick up non-perishable foods (and sometimes other items) to distribute to local food banks. We speak with Al Friedman of NALC, who coordinates Stamp Out Hunger for postal workers in several southeastern states.
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. This coming weekend is Stamp Out Hunger
Saturday. It's the annual food driverun by the National Association of Letter Carriers,
which represents those who deliver the mailas part of the US Postal Service.
Al Friedman is the Florida State Presidentfor the NALC. He also oversees
the food drive in Florida and thesoutheast US, and he joins us now
(00:24):
on Beyond the News. Al Friedman, Welcome, Thank you. A lot
of people got bags in their mailboxeslast weekend. They may not be sure
what to do with them. Maybethis is their first time with them,
maybe the first time they have theirown place. So if you could just
take a moment and give us thebasics and tell us how Stamp Out Hunger
works. Actually, they should havegotten a postcard and a bag. We
(00:49):
print out with Valpak in Saint Pete. They print out one hundred and sixty
million postcards and that covers ever everyresidential delivery in the United States. As
far as the bags, we get, those usually printed locally from sponsors or
donors. This year we have aboutfour point five million bags that will be
(01:12):
delivered to mailboxes from Orlando all theway down south up until Sarasota and across
to Melbourne. And with those bags, the idea is obviously that you put
food in those bags and you leavethem beside your mailbox for the carrier to
pick up on Saturday, May thirteenth. What kinds of donations are you able
(01:36):
to accept? What types of food? Well, we tell the public that
we only collect non perishable because everythingthat we donate back to their local food
banks, we wanted to have alittle bit some shelf life on it.
We don't have any way in ourtrucks or some of the food pantries we
deal with don't have any frigeration.So items you know, just as canned
(01:57):
goods and peanut butter and those youknow can meets cereals. Even some people
like to donate, you know,products of you know, under theodoran diapers,
you know, baby food, allthe necessary things that would cover a
family from infants right on through theelderly. A box of spaghetti would probably
(02:19):
work too, I think, Andyou know what, you're absolutely right,
and spaghetti goos in it can workjust as good. Now you mentioned food
banks. What types of organizations getthe food that you collected, how far
does it go? All the foodbanks we deal with through the state of
Florida or Southeast United States are anywherein this food drive. What we do
is all the food collected in thatcommunity stays in food banks within that community.
(02:46):
Our logo has always been neighbor helpingneighbor, because every post office was
in that town generates their own fooddrive within itself and all the carriers involvement
and they elect that food that daybring it back to that post office.
We have all the food banks inthat town or that zip code is easier
(03:07):
for us to decipher. They come, get the food and they disseminated amongst
all the food banks and get itout to the public. We kind of
shine to give soup kitchens a littlebit more food because they're normally opened on
an everyday or weekly basis to feedthe needy and the necessary step out hunger
(03:29):
has been going on now for longerthan a quarter century. If you could
give us a little bit of abackground about how it started and what you've
been able to accomplish over the years. Sure, I've been doing this myself
for over twenty five years. Thisis our thirty first annual food drive.
It has grown over the years tobe the largest one day drive in the
(03:51):
United States. Before COVID, wewere doing about seventy three to seventy four
million pounds of food in one day. Florida has led the country in states.
These plastic bags, when we dohave them, will increase our percentage
by up to fifty percent more foodwhen the customer has a bag to put
(04:15):
the necessary can goods. It startedwith a bag going out to the customer
and thinking in Florida. Right now, there's nine million residential addresses in Florida,
So when we go out there andif we could possibly put a bag
in every box, we are lookingfor two eight ounce cans of something to
(04:35):
come back and equal a pound perbag, which would easily get us nine
million pounds. But you can seeby our numbers before COVID we were into
ten and eleven million pound range.But people even more generous and the drive
couldn't be any easier than a bagin your mailbox, taking it to your
(04:55):
pantry, grabbing a couple of whatcan goods you might have been there,
putting it out on your mailbox thatSaturday morning and watch the letter carrier take
it. It's the easiest and thebest way to help a food bank within
your town. And what's the reasonwhy it happens in May? Is there
anything special about that time of yearthe food banks? You know, we
(05:17):
deliver meths of the food banks overthose years and it's still do today.
Those food banks were saying, wewish, you know, we could have
a food drive. We do littlefood drives with churches or other organizations,
and it started actually in Scottsdale,Arizona, where it was we built it
around Mother's Day. But the realreason that stayed in May is the summer
(05:42):
months have the least amount of fooddonated, not in comparison to Thanksgiving and
Christmas, where people go out oftheir way to donate for holidays. But
the part that the food banks lookat is when the kids are at a
school. There's a lot of kidson free lunches, assisted lunches, or
(06:02):
even getting a lunch to pay for. But they're at school, and these
families are now going to food banksduring the summer to help offset some of
the cost of Now I need tofeed my child breakfast and lunch, and
then the food bank demands are evengreater during the summer when the least donations.
(06:25):
So we've learned over the years foodbanks have really relied on this stamp
out hunger for the summer months toreally fill up their shelves. And I'm
given an example to metropolitan ministries inTampa. You are getting like five hundred
thousand pounds of food and they're outof it by August. It just shows
(06:46):
you. I have food banks inthose larger cities that are feeding somewhere in
the neighborhood of thirty thousand families amonth, and so you can see that
demand is there. We get youknow, I tell carriers and they thank
they're lucky stars for the job theyhave. And this is our opportunity to
shine in the community. It's neighborhelping neighbor. And letter carriers have been
(07:10):
the most trusted government agency nine yearsin a row because everybody knows the letter
carrier, and the letter carrier knowseverybody in the community. And go ahead,
and could I add one thing tothe Yeah, go ahead. If
you get a bag, you don'thave to limit it to one. We'll
take as many as you give us. That's a good point. You know,
(07:31):
any bag will do. And ifyou want to put out more than
one, we'll take whatever you have. Excellent point there, all, Freedman
again, thank you very much forjoining us on beyond the News
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. This coming weekend is Stamp Out Hunger
Saturday. It's the annual food driverun by the National Association of Letter Carriers,
which represents those who deliver the mailas part of the US Postal Service.
Al Friedman is the Florida State Presidentfor the NALC. He also oversees
the food drive in Florida and thesoutheast US, and he joins us now
(00:24):
on Beyond the News. Al Friedman, Welcome, Thank you. A lot
of people got bags in their mailboxeslast weekend. They may not be sure
what to do with them. Maybethis is their first time with them,
maybe the first time they have theirown place. So if you could just
take a moment and give us thebasics and tell us how Stamp Out Hunger
works. Actually, they should havegotten a postcard and a bag. We
(00:49):
print out with Valpak in Saint Pete. They print out one hundred and sixty
million postcards and that covers ever everyresidential delivery in the United States. As
far as the bags, we get, those usually printed locally from sponsors or
donors. This year we have aboutfour point five million bags that will be
(01:12):
delivered to mailboxes from Orlando all theway down south up until Sarasota and across
to Melbourne. And with those bags, the idea is obviously that you put
food in those bags and you leavethem beside your mailbox for the carrier to
pick up on Saturday, May thirteenth. What kinds of donations are you able
(01:36):
to accept? What types of food? Well, we tell the public that
we only collect non perishable because everythingthat we donate back to their local food
banks, we wanted to have alittle bit some shelf life on it.
We don't have any way in ourtrucks or some of the food pantries we
deal with don't have any frigeration.So items you know, just as canned
(01:57):
goods and peanut butter and those youknow can meets cereals. Even some people
like to donate, you know,products of you know, under theodoran diapers,
you know, baby food, allthe necessary things that would cover a
family from infants right on through theelderly. A box of spaghetti would probably
(02:19):
work too, I think, Andyou know what, you're absolutely right,
and spaghetti goos in it can workjust as good. Now you mentioned food
banks. What types of organizations getthe food that you collected, how far
does it go? All the foodbanks we deal with through the state of
Florida or Southeast United States are anywherein this food drive. What we do
is all the food collected in thatcommunity stays in food banks within that community.
(02:46):
Our logo has always been neighbor helpingneighbor, because every post office was
in that town generates their own fooddrive within itself and all the carriers involvement
and they elect that food that daybring it back to that post office.
We have all the food banks inthat town or that zip code is easier
(03:07):
for us to decipher. They come, get the food and they disseminated amongst
all the food banks and get itout to the public. We kind of
shine to give soup kitchens a littlebit more food because they're normally opened on
an everyday or weekly basis to feedthe needy and the necessary step out hunger
(03:29):
has been going on now for longerthan a quarter century. If you could
give us a little bit of abackground about how it started and what you've
been able to accomplish over the years. Sure, I've been doing this myself
for over twenty five years. Thisis our thirty first annual food drive.
It has grown over the years tobe the largest one day drive in the
(03:51):
United States. Before COVID, wewere doing about seventy three to seventy four
million pounds of food in one day. Florida has led the country in states.
These plastic bags, when we dohave them, will increase our percentage
by up to fifty percent more foodwhen the customer has a bag to put
(04:15):
the necessary can goods. It startedwith a bag going out to the customer
and thinking in Florida. Right now, there's nine million residential addresses in Florida,
So when we go out there andif we could possibly put a bag
in every box, we are lookingfor two eight ounce cans of something to
(04:35):
come back and equal a pound perbag, which would easily get us nine
million pounds. But you can seeby our numbers before COVID we were into
ten and eleven million pound range.But people even more generous and the drive
couldn't be any easier than a bagin your mailbox, taking it to your
(04:55):
pantry, grabbing a couple of whatcan goods you might have been there,
putting it out on your mailbox thatSaturday morning and watch the letter carrier take
it. It's the easiest and thebest way to help a food bank within
your town. And what's the reasonwhy it happens in May? Is there
anything special about that time of yearthe food banks? You know, we
(05:17):
deliver meths of the food banks overthose years and it's still do today.
Those food banks were saying, wewish, you know, we could have
a food drive. We do littlefood drives with churches or other organizations,
and it started actually in Scottsdale,Arizona, where it was we built it
around Mother's Day. But the realreason that stayed in May is the summer
(05:42):
months have the least amount of fooddonated, not in comparison to Thanksgiving and
Christmas, where people go out oftheir way to donate for holidays. But
the part that the food banks lookat is when the kids are at a
school. There's a lot of kidson free lunches, assisted lunches, or
(06:02):
even getting a lunch to pay for. But they're at school, and these
families are now going to food banksduring the summer to help offset some of
the cost of Now I need tofeed my child breakfast and lunch, and
then the food bank demands are evengreater during the summer when the least donations.
(06:25):
So we've learned over the years foodbanks have really relied on this stamp
out hunger for the summer months toreally fill up their shelves. And I'm
given an example to metropolitan ministries inTampa. You are getting like five hundred
thousand pounds of food and they're outof it by August. It just shows
(06:46):
you. I have food banks inthose larger cities that are feeding somewhere in
the neighborhood of thirty thousand families amonth, and so you can see that
demand is there. We get youknow, I tell carriers and they thank
they're lucky stars for the job theyhave. And this is our opportunity to
shine in the community. It's neighborhelping neighbor. And letter carriers have been
(07:10):
the most trusted government agency nine yearsin a row because everybody knows the letter
carrier, and the letter carrier knowseverybody in the community. And go ahead,
and could I add one thing tothe Yeah, go ahead. If
you get a bag, you don'thave to limit it to one. We'll
take as many as you give us. That's a good point. You know,
(07:31):
any bag will do. And ifyou want to put out more than
one, we'll take whatever you have. Excellent point there, all, Freedman
again, thank you very much forjoining us on beyond the News
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