Postal carrier food drive sets record (73.1 million pounds of donated food )

[Omaha Steve]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080602/ap_on_go_ot/mail_food

Mon Jun 2, 11:26 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The annual food drive of the nation's mail carriers collected a record 73.1 million pounds of donated food this year, union officials said Monday.

The National Association of Letter Carriers said the food was delivered to local food banks, pantries and shelters in communities where it was collected.

"It is heartwarming that in these difficult times, when all families are feeling the effects of high food and gasoline prices, that so many Americans put aside their own financial concerns to help others facing hard times," NALC president William H. Young said in a statement.

The May 10 drive totaled 73,113,915 pounds of nonperishable food collected in more than 10,000 cities and towns. The amount was 2.4 million pounds larger than last year and surpassed the previous record of 71.3 million pounds collected in 2005.

The union's West Coast Florida branch, headquartered in the St. Petersburg area, took top honors among the nearly 1,500 local branches that conducted drives, collecting 1,717,218 pounds of donations.

Cross post from the Labor Forum.

[maddezmom]

1. Awesome

Maybe they should try it more often. Thanks for posting. :hi:

[Breeze54]

2. AWESOME!! Mail Carriers and DUers ROCK!!!!!

:yourock:

:grouphug:

WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:loveya:

Thanks, Steve!! :D

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

:kick: & Recommended!!!

[flvegan]

3. See? Florida doesn't always suck.

[robinlynne]

4. That is a reason to be proud of our country. First one in a long long time.

[Historic NY]

5. I made sure my carrier got a large bag.

[frylock]

6. i had nearly forgotten about it..

fortunately my mail carrier was kind enough to wait around for me to clean out my pantry. big ups to all who participated!!

[rhett o rick]

7. I worked on the receiving end. We had lots of volunteers sorting and boxing the

donations. I volunteer at a food bank. We were the central collections site and we boxed, and pallet'ed many hundreds of pounds of food and distributed to the food banks in the area.

On the negative side, the numbers of people needing the food is up. We also try to distribute to the homeless that don't have transportation to the foodbank facility.

[madrchsod]

9. that`s what it`s all about---everyone doing their share

yes it`s getting bad out there...

[madrchsod]

8. four cans in the mail box....

the food pantries need every ounce they can get

[pinto]

10. Good to hear. It's a big boost in our county. Thanks for the update.

:thumbsup:

[wryter2000]

11. Wonderful!

Many thanks to our letter carriers for making it so easy to donate food. I love getting the notice every year.