GILROY
– Now helping the homeless can be as easy as going to the
mailbox.
GILROY – Now helping the homeless can be as easy as going to the mailbox.
Letter carriers from more than 140 post offices throughout the Bay Area – including Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin – will collect nonperishable food donations as they deliver the mail Saturday in the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive.
To participate, residents only have to put a bag of healthy, nonperishable food near their home or business mailbox on the morning of Saturday. The food will be picked up when the mail is delivered and brought to a local food bank.
“It’s the easiest food drive in the world,” said Jenny Luciano, a spokeswoman for Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. “Literally, people have to walk out their front door, pop some food in a bag and leave it for their postal carrier”
Suggested donation items include canned vegetables and fruits, tuna, fish, peanut butter, rice, dry beans and pasta.
The drive will help Bay Area food banks stock their shelves before summer, a season when emergency food requests increase dramatically.
Thousands of low-income Bay Area children depend on free or reduced-price school meals during the academic year, but lose access to the service during summer months. As a result, many parents turn to local food pantries and soup kitchens for help feeding their children.
Much of what’s collected in the Bay Area will be shared with hundreds of partner agencies, such as Gilroy’s St. Joseph’s Family Center and The Salvation Army.
Last year’s drive brought in 70 million pounds of food nationwide.
Details: (800) 870-FOOD.
