Donated food items fill the loading dock at the Merced Post Office on M Street during the National Association of Letter Carriers annual Stamp out Hunger food drive on May 13.
A mail cart full of donated food makes its way onto the loading dock at the M Street post office.
The effort filled multiple trucks with donated food items from across Merced.
The National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 1340 in Merced held their annual Stamp out Hunger food drive on Saturday, May 13.
As donations began to role in from letter carriers, the loading dock at the M Street Post office began to quickly fill to capacity — surpassing last year’s amount with a total donation of 13,397 pounds of food.
Held nationwide, the annual food drive takes place on the second Saturday of May and has run for more than a quarter of a century to help provide assistance to those struggling with hunger.
The food drive makes use of the unique network created by Postal Carriers. Residents are provided with paper bags to fill with non-perishable food items. They then place the food donations by their mailbox. The bags are picked up by carriers when the daily mail is delivered.
As with years past, donations are still expected to come in throughout the week as more residents continue to donate. Members of the NALC have expressed they anticipate that this year’s total donation will surpass 14,000 pounds of food as the final bags are collected and delivered to the Merced County Food Bank.