NALC 2010 National Food Drive

[Omaha Steve]

Run time: 09:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCL0nV38C1Q   Posted on YouTube: April 21, 2010 By YouTube Member: ThePostalRecord Views on YouTube: 442   Posted on DU: May 08, 2010 By DU Member: Omaha Steve Views on DU: 214

 

http://www.nalc.org/commun/foodrive/

Branches ready to 'Bust a Billion' in 18th NALC national food drive

May 3—Only a few days remain until the May 8 NALC National Food Drive—an icon in the nation's effort to help millions of families facing hunger—with expectations that the drive will break through the 1 billion pound mark in total donations collected since the union's effort began 18 years ago.

As more than 1,400 NALC branches and scores of rurals-only post offices made last moment preparations, the drive received a great boost from National Hot Rod Association funny car star Ashley Force Hood to complement nationwide exposure already in place by entertainment stars Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Ryan Seacrest, and numerous local promotions by political and celebrity personalities all across the nation.


CELEBRITY BOOSTERS

Ashley Force Hood

Courteney Cox

David Arquette

Ryan Seacrest

The drive this year hopes to exceed last year's 73.4 million pounds total, which would easily surpass the 1 billion total mark, since the current total stands at 982.7 million pounds.

Force Hood, who began promoting the food drive in 2009 by social networking her racing fans after seeing an ad in Redbook magazine, was outspoken in her praise of letter carriers and Campbell's involvement.

"I really think it is neat that postal carriers...are helping out and making it so easy to donate food," Force Hood said. "I really think we can make a difference and I hope all my fans and NHRA fans in general will really get behind this and donate a lot of food."

In addition to the traditional reporting of final results (this year by May 25), NALC is seeking fast Internet reports over the weekend of preliminary results that would enable the union to announce early next week how the drive went and that we had broken the 1 billion pound mark, even as the count continued toward the final, complete results (see below).

More than 126 million postcards, sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service and Campbell Soup Company, were delivered to branches to remind residents to leave food out by their mailboxes on May 8. These followed more than 40 million special Valpak envelopes that were delivered in April and May also promoting donations.

Also joining in support of the drive were national partners:

* National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association
* U.S. Postal Service’s Priority Mail
* Campbell Soup Company
* Valpak direct marketing
* United Way Worldwide and its local United Ways
* AFL-CIO
* Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network

Branch food drive coordinators were mailed last week the official form to report final poundage collected, as well as instructions on how to report the preliminary results on the Internet before 12 noon EDT Monday, May 10. The Internet address and information included in the material mailed to coordinators is the only method of reporting the unofficial, preliminary results.

The official 2010 Food Drive video. Click here to watch
the full-size version on the NALC's YouTube channel.

Final branch reports must be received at NALC Headquarters no later than Tuesday, May 25 to be included in list of branches in the Postal Record and be considered for special Campbell Soup/NALC Branch Awards.

Information and materials about local branch food drives is needed for articles in the Postal Record and NALC Bulletin and for videos, including color photos with identification; videos of high quality, especially of local news coverage; and other materials such as proclamations, letters of thanks, and tearsheets of newspaper articles and editorials.
The top branches in 10 NALC membership categories will be honored and receive recognition at the NALC Convention in Anaheim in August, and Campbell Soup will provide a 1,000-can donation of soup to a food bank or pantry designated by each winning branch.