On Saturday May 8, the Orange County Food Bank, a program of Community Action Partnership of Orange County (CAPOC), along with food banks across the country are partnering with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) in an effort to “Stamp out Hunger.”  Local Letter Carriers will be picking up non-perishable food donations left at mailboxes and deliver them to local food banks, including the Orange County Food Bank.  Volunteers will then sort through the food, prepare boxes to be distributed to local charities and food pantries that help hungry families with children, seniors and low-income persons throughout the community.

Because of the current economic crisis, food banks have been experiencing an increase in demand of food and a decrease in donations.  There are nearly 615,000 people at risk of hunger every month in Orange County.  In 2009 there were more than 22,000 homeless children in Orange County.  An estimated 32.4 million adults and 16.7 million children are at risk of hunger nationwide.

Eagle Community Credit Union, CO-OP Financial services along with eleven other local credit unions and collected funds which CAPOC used to purchase 1-million bags.  These bags will be distributed to neighborhoods throughout the community to collect donated non-perishable food items.   We are asking the public to collect non-perishable food and place them in the bag by their mailbox on Saturday May 8^th 2010.  Non-perishable foods include canned meats, canned vegetables, bottled and boxed juices, water and dry goods such as noodles, rice, sugar and beans.  The food will be collected by mail carriers, sorted and then distributed to local charities and food pantries that will then be provided to the community at large.

The 18^th Annual NALC Food Drive is the largest one-day food drive in the nation.  Last year

marked the 6^th year in a row that donations exceeded over 70-million pounds.  This year the NALC expects a total of donations, during the 18 years the drive has taken place, to surpass one-billion pounds of food.  For more information on the “Stamp out Hunger” campaign please visit www.helpstampouthunger.com.