By Frank Sinatra, AAP Editor
The Food Bank of South Jersey was host to this year’s kickoff of the 30th annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Representatives from FBSJ, the United States Postal Service, and the National Association of Letter Carriers were on hand to drum up support for this special event, held each year on the second Saturday in May.
“Thirty years ago, the National Association of Letter Carriers started a food drive to ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ and feed those in need; 1.8 billion pounds of food later, the drive is still going strong and is now the largest, one-day food drive in the country, helping food banks like ours across the nation and to feed those facing food insecurity,” said Lavinia Awosanya, chief development officer for FBSJ. “For us here at the Food Bank of South Jersey, this drive has been incredible. It helps us to get through the hard summer months.”
“In our region, one out of seven adults are food insecure. One in five children face hunger every single day. That is unacceptable,” added Fred C. Wasiak, FBSJ president and CEO. “Hunger is real, And that is why this food drive is so crucial.”
“COVID has wrecked havoc on food banks,” said Brian Thompson, business agent for the National Association of Letter Carriers. “I’m actually excited, just like all the other carriers and branch managers, to help the food banks get back in stock.”
This year’s Stamp Out Hunger drive will take place on Saturday, May 14. Residents can participate by setting a bag of non-perishable food items next to their mailboxes or on their porches for their local letter carrier to pick up and deliver to a local hunger-relief organization, like Pennsauken’s Food Bank of South Jersey. In 2019, the last time Stamp Out Hunger was held in person, more than 184,000 pounds of food was collected for FBSJ to distribute to residents in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem counties.
“The impact of food donations is immediately seen by us, when families come and receive food on a weekly basis,” said Pastor Georgia Dennis of Love Reach Ministries International in Camden, the Food Bank of South Jersey’s largest partner agency, serving over 10,000 people a month. “The obvious look of despair on their faces when they come in begins to diminish and eventually disappears, when they see that they access to food, right where they are.”
Suggested non-perishable food items include canned soup, canned vegetables, canned meats and fish, pasta, rice and cereal. Those with questions about the drive in their area should ask their letter carrier, contact their local post office, or go to nalc.org/food-drive, facebook.com/StampOutHunger or twitter.com/StampOutHunger.
