RANGELY — The Rangely Post Office asks postal customers “to help the hungry” and donate to the annual letter carriers’ food drive Saturday, May 10. All the food collected goes to community food banks which provide meals for the needy throughout the year.
Postal customers wishing to donate food items should put them in a plastic bag and leave the bag of food items by your mailbox before mail delivery Saturday, May 10.
Food items should be non-perishable such as dried, canned and packaged products. Items most needed by food banks are canned meats, soup, fruits and vegetables; and packaged non-perishables with lots of protein/carbohydrates such as pasta, cereal, powdered milk and vegetables. Every 1.3 pounds. of food donated equates to one meal, according to food bank officials.
“The food drive is a great opportunity for us all to give something to important to those who most need it. Your food donations will help out the many needy children, families, the elderly and the unfortunate whom our letter carriers see on their routes every day,” says local letter carrier food drive coordinator Danielle LeBleu.
“Our letter carriers and volunteers are looking to collect as much food as possible May 10. I know we can again count on the tremendous generosity of our Rangely postal customers to help the hungry in our community.”
The post office will also have a food drive bin set up in its lobby Saturday, May 10 and every day of that week before, so customers can also drop off their canned and non-perishable food items through the week beforehand.
This is the 16th year of the annual postal food drive which started in 1993. More than three-quarters of a billion pounds of food have been collected by letter carriers and post offices over the years to feed America’s hungry. A total of 10,000 communities and post offices in all 50 states are participating this year. In 2007, letter carriers collected 70.7 million pounds of food nationwide to support the hungry.