Letter carriers schedule food drive

The National Association of Letter Carriers will hold their annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive Saturday.

In Green Valley and Sahuarita, letter carriers will collect non-perishable food and deliver it to the Green Valley Community Food Bank. In addition, beginning today, postcards with envelopes attached will be delivered to all mailboxes. The envelope is for monetary donations.

Community Food Bank manager Mary Jane Goodrick said in addition to their regular routes Saturday, the letter carriers will be volunteering their time and energy to pick up food. It’s the 17th consecutive year they’ve done so in Green Valley and Sahuarita.

The Food Bank’s most needed items continue to be canned or dried pasta, any type of canned beans, canned fruit and canned meat, tuna and chicken. Goodrick said the Food Bank was completely out of canned and dried pasta and canned beans last weekend; these items continually need to be replenished.

“For the 2007 Food Drive, Green Valley and Sahuarita donated a total of $20,225 and 25,747 pounds of food. Our goal this year is 30,000 each; we haven’t seen a decline in the giving,

“The food collected by the letter carrier’s drive used to last from June through August, however, with more families using the Food Bank the supply will likely only last four to six weeks.

“Postmasters Sandy Rios in Green Valley and Jack Gerrettie in Sahuarita are very supportive. Over the past 16 years the drive has brought in 330,899 pounds of food and $205,683 to the Community Food Bank,” Goodrick said, adding that the Food Bank now awaits this year’s donations, which will provide meals to needy families, individuals, children and seniors during the summer months when the food supply is typically low.

She requests that for letter carrier’s safety no food items in glass containers be left at the curb; items such as spaghetti sauce or jars of jelly should be brought to the Food Bank. Packaged food that has been opened or has an expired date cannot be accepted.

Goodrick expressed gratitude to Kokopelli’s Gelato Factory on Whitehouse Canyon Road for donating three tubs of gelato for letter carriers and Food Bank volunteers, who will work two-hour shifts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and to Wal-Mart for donating food for 50 letter carriers.

The drive is co-sponsored by Campbell’s Foods, the United States Postal Service, the AFL-CIO, United Way and Valpak.

Ellen Sussman is a freelance writer. Contact her at ellen2414@cox.net.