The Post Office Food Drive will be on Saturday, May 11. The “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive has taken place for the past 21 years across the United States. Here in Rutherford County, area Boy Scouts and volunteers will help to organize the food as it comes in on the 11th. Now, here is where they need your help… On May 11th, Rutherford County residents are being asked to please leave a non-perishable food donation hanging from their mailbox in a grocery bag. Your postman will pick the bag up and drop it off at a central food collection hub later that day. The food will then go to local food banks where it will be picked up by persons in need living in our community.

Feeding America.org reports that in 2011, 5.1 percent of all U.S. households accessed emergency food from a food pantry one or more times. The same group says that the food insecurity rate in Rutherford County is 13.8%. Food insecurity refers to the lack of access to enough food for a healthy family. The organization has reported, “food insecurity may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between important needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods.” For some reason, the food insecurity rate is even higher for children in Rutherford County. That number rings in at 20.6%.

Just to give you an idea of how big of an impact the annual drive has on our country, 175,000 letter carriers will work to collect the donated food on Saturday, May 11.

Source: 

US Postal Service “Stamp Out Hunger” Program
Feeding America.org