By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Help is needed both on the donation and volunteer fronts for the annual National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, held the second Saturday in May.
The need is “desperate” for the Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO), with locations both in Riverview and Brandon, where 600 volunteers last year sorted, weighed, packed and warehoused roughly 70,000 pounds of donated food, according to Eleanor Saunders, ECHO’s executive director.
ECHO call-out for “Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive” volunteers May 10.
In an interview Monday, Saunders said roughly 150 volunteers had signed up to volunteer for this year’s May 10 food drive, which is way below the 500 volunteers needed.
“We are so desperate for volunteers, it’s not even funny,” Saunders said. “Please help us.”
ECHO, both in Brandon and at its Riverview Resource Center location, at 10509 Riverview Drive, serves neighbors who are one disease, one accident, one job loss, one rent increase, one crisis away from sustainability with food, clothing, job search and social services assistance.
ECHO call-out for “Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive” volunteers May 10
The nonprofit last year served a record-breaking number of individuals. That number stood at roughly 30,000 people. Saunders said this fiscal year, which ends June 30, easily will be surpassed.
“The needs we’re seeing show that a lot of people are coming to us for the very first time, and that means they never asked for help before,” Saunders said. “They’re people who are working but simply not making enough money.”
Meanwhile, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is billed as the nation’s largest all-volunteer, one-day collection effort.
For those with a giver’s heart, there’s no further effort required than placing a bag filled with non-perishable food donations near their mailboxes, for pickup that day by letter carriers.
For those with a volunteer’s heart, the call is out to sign up to help sort donations at designated collection sites, for delivery to area food banks and pantries, where individuals, groups and families are welcome to help “unite for a hunger-free community.” High school students (ages 16 and older) are eligible to earn Florida Bright Future scholarship community service hours.
Promotion for the annual NALC “Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive,” this year set for May 10
Heroes in all this are the letter carriers from participating NALC, rural and United States Postal Service (USPS) locations, who make it all possible, as they donate their time for double-duty, lifting and loading food and making extra drives.
According to NALC officials, the national, coordinated effort to help fight hunger in America grew out of discussions in 1991 by a number of leaders at the time, including Vincent R. Sombrotto, NALC president; Joseph Velasquez, AFL-CIO community services director; and Postmaster General Anthony Frank. A pilot drive in 10 cities in October 1991 reportedly proved so successful, “that work began immediately on making it a nationwide effort.”
With input from food bank and pantry workers, the annual drive was rescheduled to the spring because that’s when the shelves more typically stood empty after Thanksgiving, Christmas and other year-end holiday donations.
The goal for the revamped drive, held May 15, 1993, was to have at least one NALC branch in each of the 50 states competing. “The result was astounding,” reads the NALC food drive history report. “More than 11 million pounds of food was collected, a one-day record in the United States, involving more than 220 union branches.”
Linda Chion Kenney photos
The Riverview ECHO “conveyor belt” at the 2024 “Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive,” with ECHO’s Steve McKinnon and Savanna Thompson.
It’s further noted that in the more than 30 years since it began, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has resulted in the collection of approximately 1.9 billion pounds of food for those in need.
As ECHO prepares for a massive onslaught of food donations May 10, Saunders promises a day of fulfillment and fun for volunteers.
“It’s akin to the I Love Lucy television series episode, where Lucy and Vivian sort chocolate candies coming down a conveyor belt,” Saunders said. “It’s lovely and a lot of fun and it will fill our food pantries, which are very low right now. This drive is desperately needed, and it will restock both pantries, in Riverview and Brandon, for a few months.”
For more on the drive and ways to help ECHO, visit www.echofl.org/ or call 813-540-9880.