Donated food poured into the main Charleston Post Office on Saturday, May 11, as letter carriers and volunteers unloaded the mail delivery vehicles.
United Food Operation (UFO) leader, Elaine Harris, was thankful for the generosity of Charleston area residents.
“The community always steps up to the plate each year for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive,” she said. “And our letter carriers, these men and women work so hard on this effort every year. We truly appreciate their work to collect all this donated food from across the region.”
Harris recognized the hard work of members of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 531. She noted that many of the letter carriers stayed after their shifts ended, helping pack up the food so it could be trucked over to the United Food Operation warehouse for sorting.
“The donated food collected will help provide needed nutrition to many families around Kanawha and Putnam counties. It’s always a pleasure working with the letter carrier food drive leaders, RD Henson and Troy Lahue, on this annual program.”
Beyond NALC members, volunteers from around the areaalso came out to help process the donated foods.
Some of the volunteers included Kanawha County Judges Jennifer Bailey and Lera VanMeter, along with Curt Zickefoose, Lora Walker. and Circuit Court judge candidate Rich Lindsay,
Harris says another group that turns out year after year to help unload food are Charleston Firefighters from IAFF Local 317. They were back in force this year.
As they have for many years, members of the West Virginia Army National Guard used their trucks to help bring in food from remote postal centers and they also delivered the food from the main post office over to the UFO warehouse.
UFO-affiliated food pantry representatives also came out to help. They included Jodie Breitkreutz from Covenant House Charleston and Ted Dues with Enact. Also helping out was Larry Stanley, retired NALC.
UFO board members were out working too. Kay Moffatt helped out at the post office, while Joe Gresham was stationed at the Institute warehouse to receive the trucks delivering food there.
In coming days, the foods will be sorted and then shipped out to the ten UFO-affiliated local food pantries.