Postal carriers hope residents will help stamp out hunger Saturday

Laura Olson, Garvin Daniels and Stacy Kennedy welcomed the public to the kickoff event for the 14th Annual National Association of Letter Carriers food drive on Wednesday. Letter carriers in Gaffney and across the nation will be delivering more than just mail this Saturday when the 14th Annual Letter Carriers' Food Drive is held.

The project involves postal service employees collecting food for the needy in their local communities.

To kick off the event, Gaffney Postmaster Garvin Daniels hosted a special ceremony Wednesday morning recognizing the organizations that will receive the donations.

"Last year we collected 17,000 pounds of food locally," Daniels said. "Nationwide, the total was more than 17 million pounds. The food we collect this year will go to The Salvation Army, Harbor of Hope, Peachtree Center Ministries, Indian Hill Soup Kitchen and the Cherokee Children's Home. I want to thank the groups for sending a representative here today and thank Gaffney Mayor Henry Jolly for giving us a proclamation."

Jolly, who attended along with Dist. 4 City Councilman Dennis Ramsey, addressed the crowd and read the proclamation.

"First I want to say what a privilege it is to be here today and speak," Jolly commented. "I want to thank Dennis for being here and I want to chastise the others for not attending this event. I want to thank Garvin, Laura Olson, Stacy Kennedy, Candy Bright and all the other postal workers for their dedication to this cause. I encourage all the residents of our city to donate to this cause on Saturday."

According to a press release distributed by post office spokesman Harry Spratlin, nearly 229,000 letter carriers are preparing for what is the world's largest one-day food drive in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America.

In South Carolina, 2,616 Rural and City Letter Carriers will gather food donations that will remain in food banks in communities across the state.

"The past two years we have collected just over three-quarters of a million pounds of food," said Ed Martin, state National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) president, "We're hoping for an increase this year."

Since the NALC Food Drive began in 1993, letter carriers and other employees have collected and delivered 695 million pounds of food.

"The need by America's food banks this May will be enormous," said NALC President William H. Young. "From experience, we know donations made in holiday food drives are usually gone by late spring."

Residents are asked to leave non-perishable food donations in a bag near their

mailbox Saturday prior to the time their letter carrier arrives. The carriers will collect the donations during their regular deliveries.

"It is a source of personal pride and pleasure to express the full support of the Postal Service for the 14th annual NALC National Food Drive and to participate as a co-sponsor," said Postmaster General John E. Potter. "This activity exemplifies the public service contributions of the Postal Service and its employees and illustrates the power and reach of universal delivery in this country."