Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Is Saturday

May 9, 2014

On Saturday, Escambia and Santa Rosa Letter Carriers will join forces to help  Stamp Out Hunger in our community. In its 22nd year, the annual food drive has grown to the largest national single-day effort that benefits millions of Americans who struggle to put food on the table.

Residents are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag of non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal next to their mailbox prior regular mail delivery on Saturday. Donations may also be dropped off at any U.S. Post Office or Publix Store now through Monday, May 12. Escambia and Santa Rosa County letter carriers will collect food donations for five local organizations including: Manna Food Pantries, Warrington Emergency Aid, Bay Area Food Bank in Pace and Milton, Acts Ministries in Gulf Breeze and We Care Ministries of Navarre United Methodist Church.

Last year, the organizations collected more than 150,000 pounds of food from the drive. Despite previous generous support, the need is still great in our community. Last year, Manna Food Pantries alone helped 42,116 individuals through their network of six pantries in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Of those, 38 percent were children under the age of 18. Another 15 percent were senior citizens. Manna helped 17,993 families and 13 percent of those families were either active duty, retired or veteran military.

Because of the devastating flood that impacted our community last week, Manna had to suspend all services, and currently cannot accept food donations. However, generous community supporters are working diligently to provide a temporary location to store donations from the Stamp Out Hunger drive.  These donations will be critical in helping Manna resume normal operations in the weeks to come.

Comments

One Response to “Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Is Saturday”

  1. Sue on May 9th, 2014 2:02 pm

    What perfect timing! With our Manna Food Bank suffering such losses and so many people losing everything they own, including the food in their pantries, I hope everyone will participate in this food drive.