It’s late spring and the weather is getting nice. Spirits are up. Flowers are blooming. Plenty of outdoor activities draw your attention. It’s easy to forget that your local food pantry still needs your help.

That’s the beauty of the Stamp Out Hunger food drive conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service. It’s a poignant reminder at just the right time. This year’s food drive took place on May 13.

The need for food from our pantries has been pretty much at an all time high over the past winter months. The large-scale food resources that supply pantries are not really keeping up with the increased need we’ve seen.

The supply of food from large governmental food banks and national charitable organizations, while important, does not come close to meeting the true need of food pantries in our community. Local pantries depend on the generosity of the local community — of local folks who donate their dollars and canned goods all year around. Without the little people who bring over a few cans of tuna or few dollars they made at a bake sale, many local food pantries would close and many others would barely get by.

Letter Carriers give visibility to need for food

The Letter Carriers annual food drive brings home this point maybe better than any other large event. It communicates the need and says every little bit helps. Every little bit is important. The Letter Carriers reach out to all sectors of the community — urban, suburban and rural areas — to everyone who gets mail. No other food drive has this kind of reach.

And from the efforts of Letter Carriers and their allies, thousands of pounds of food are donated, collected, and then distributed to local food pantries where it is put to use serving the needy in our community. This donated food is a godsend, just ask anyone associated with one of our local food pantries.

UFO thanks our local Letter Carriers

United Food Operation want to sincerely thank members of Local 531 of the National Association of Letter Carriers for another great food drive.  Letter Carrier R.D. Henson did a great job in his first year  coordinating the program. Thanks also go out to all the other groups that cosponsored or otherwise helped out this wonderful effort.

Members of Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 2001 donated around 25,000 pounds of food during the final five weeks of the United Food Operation (UFO) winter food distribution program. This massive influx of food allowed the program to end its seasonal distribution on a positive note.

UFO had feared that it would not get through its 12-week food distribution season this year without severe cutbacks in food quantity toward the end. The CWA donations kept that from happening.

UFO chairperson Elaine Harris lauded the efforts of the CWA members.

“It made a huge difference.,” Harris said.

The CWA members, who are employed by Frontier Communications in the Charleston WV area, performed all kinds of fundraising strategies on and off the workplace. Then, they vigorously shopped sales at area grocery chains to stretch every dollar to its maximum and also to obtain some matching donations and extra discounts from the stores.

CWA donations filled the warehouse

Joe Gresham, manager of UFO’s warehouse, said it was amazing and inspirational to see the food roll in. CWA brought in 28 pallets loaded with about 43,000 food items. Gresham said the CWA food allowed the UFO program to end this year in the black.

Representatives of the 12 local food pantries supported by UFO said the extra food was so welcomed. They were especially appreciative that CWA took the time to find out the items most needed by the pantries before they went shopping. This ensured that the items donated would not go to waste.

We love our volunteers. Thank you.

United Food Operation is blessed with so many great people and businesses donate who so freely donate of their time and money. We could always use more, but the ones we have are golden.

Beyond the CWA members, some volunteer stars of last weekend include Girl Scout Troop 2384 of Dunbar, WV; forklift operator Jerry Miller of SGS  Petroleum Services; and MH Equipment of Cross Lanes, WV that donated the use of the forklift for the season. These are the kinds of efforts that make all the difference.