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WICHITA, KS - On the second Saturday in May – May 13, 2006 – letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across A
 merica will deliver much more than mail when they walk and drive along their postal
routes. They also will collect the goodness and compassion of their postal customers participating in the 14th annual NALC National Food Drive – the largest one-day food drive in the nation.
Letter Carriers will collect non-perishable food donations left by mailboxes and in post offices and deliver them to local community food banks, pantries, and shelters. Nearly 1,500
local NALC branches in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands are involved in the drive.
The effort by letter carriers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO), with the help of rural letter carriers, other postal employees and numerous other
volunteers has resulted in delivery of well over a half billion pounds of donations to community food banks and pantries over the past 13 years.
This year, we are proud to include the Dillons Company as one of our local sponsors. The Dillons
Company will provide the bags left at households in the Wichita and surrounding areas. Campbell Soup
Company and the U.S. Postal Service are major supporters again in 2006, cosponsoring the printing of 110
million postcards for delivery by letter carriers to encourage the general public to participate in the drive.
Also returning as a major supporter is Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, the nationwide direct mail
marketing firm, which since 2004 has included promotions for the drive on 40 million packets delivered to postal customers.
The success is in its simplicity.
All citizens need to do is place a box or can of non-perishable food next to their mailbox before their letter carrier delivers mail on Saturday, May 13. The carrier will do all the
rest. Letter carriers will collect the donations during normal deliveries to be distributed to the Kansas Food Bank.
An estimated 30 million people face hunger every day in America, including more than 12 million children. This drive is one way people can help those right in their own city or town who need help.
NALC President William H. Young noted that the additional impact on food supplies this year brought on by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and
how it uprooted the lives of thousands of people. Food banks in the Gulf Coast area and all across the
nation were impacted as hurricane victims were spread out to other states to temporarily relocate without
food or clothing. Food stockpiles have vanished as resources were used to either help those who came to a new area, or in food sent to the Gulf Coast region.
“
 The need by America’s food banks this May will be enormous,” Young said. “Many are already
desperate for help. From experience, we know donations made in holiday food drives are usually gone by late Spring, even under normal circumstances.”
“We simply MUST have a successful drive, the best ever,” Young said.
In 2005, the drive collected a record 71,301,210 pounds of food for the needy from postal customers. Campbell Soup earmarked an additional 1 million pounds of canned food to the drive.
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