Help just a mailbox away: Join fight against hunger and donate to Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

Sometimes paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially if you’re always hungry.

One in 6 Hawai‘i residents struggle with not having enough to eat. That includes 1 in 4 keiki — the second highest rate of child food insecurity in the United States.

The need is great. But help is just a mailbox or post office away.

The National Association of Letter Carriers invites anyone and everyone who can to join the fight against hunger in their communities by donating to the association’s 32nd annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Saturday.

Do you have a few extra canned or other non-perishable food items to spare? The annual food drive provides an easy way to put your excess or unwanted items to good use and not just become another addition to Hawai‘i’s quickly filling landfills.

Just leave non-perishable food donations in a bag near your mailbox or at your local post office to be collected by letter carriers.

Food donations are then distributed to a food bank on the island where they were collected and remain on that island to assist local keiki, kūpuna and families.

The National Association of Letter Carriers partners with Hawai‘i Foodbank on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i, Maui Food Bank and The Food Basket on the Big Island.

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive started in 1993 and has since grown into the largest one-day food drive in the United States. It has delivered more than 1.82 billion pounds of food nationwide throughout the past 30 years.

Nearly 1,500 National Association of Letter Carriers branches in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands are involved in the effort.

If you cannot participate in the physical food collection, which is conducted every year on the second Saturday in May, there are two other ways to help:

• Make a monetary donation online.
• Give by texting NALC to 71777.

Every $1 donated can help provide food for more than 2 meals.

For more information about the food drive, click here or email to communityserviceshq@nalc.org.