Every day we need food. It’s part of living. In the eyes of children, happiness is giving. We can connect every day with people we never meet just by giving. One can of food can help another person survive one more day. If you have never served or volunteered at a food bank pantry or soup kitchen, or seen the local warehouse where people shop for food, you’ve never experienced the cries and hardships of so many hungry seniors, middle-class parents, children and those who have no transportation, no housing and no families. Your life can be changed in the blink of an eye. Any one of us can be in those lines. What would people do without the help of even food stamps?
Just give one can or fill one bag, please, and put it by your mailbox or drop it off at a local postal service center. There are many food drives throughout the year, but the Letter Carriers Food Drive, “Stamp Out Hunger,” Saturday, May 9, is one day, and it brings in locally to Branch 1690. Five hundred thousand pounds of food is needed to fill those warehouses so that they can fill those church pantries and other food banks.
Yes, you can give hope and experience the joy as a little child who loves to give without receiving. You will be blessed by a blessing. Gaining is giving. Serving is living. They say you reap what you sow, but when you’re down to those last pennies, you can gain abundance by sharing. Fellowship builds relationships, and the benefits are faithful within each one of us. This process benefits you through what you do for others.
Please share, and thank you, for supporting the 23rd annual Letter Carriers Food Drive on Saturday, May 9.
Letter carriers all over the United States are in the planning stages for the food drive. The foundation is being built locally and nationally. Publix plastic bags will be placed into your residential mailboxes with a 3×5 information card, along with our sponsor Valpak, which will be advertising our food drive and will be delivered to each residential and rural customer.
Many letter carriers also will be wearing food drive T-shirts to remind you of the drive. Bins will also be added in some postal service facilities, as well as many volunteers getting set to sort and unload postal vehicles when each carrier returns from their routes and deliveries on Saturday, May 9. We need your donations of non-perishable items. There will be kickoffs at local food bank pantries. Thursday, May 7 at 9 a.m. is the one at Holy Name of Jesus Church in West Palm Beach.
We are truly trying to make this 2015 Stamp Out Hunger a year to refurbish the Feeding South Florida and Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast Food Bank warehouses. Please give. We need your help. Thank you.
Starr Hunter, Food Drive Coordinator, West Palm Beach
