Letter carriers collect 43,400 pounds of food for needy

In addition to their usual duties of delivering the mail and hauling packages, Carson City's letter carriers took on an extra duty Saturday.

Striking a blow against hunger.

During the course of their deliveries, carriers collected 43,400 pounds of donated nonperishable food items.

The collection is part of the national Association of Letter Carriers annual "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive, which collects more than 71 million pounds of food nationwide.

"It makes sense for the carriers to do something like this since we visit almost every household in the city," said Gregg Swift, food drive coordinator for the main Carson City post office.

Locally, all donations go to Advocates to End Domestic Violence and Friends in Service Helping.

The collection added approximately a half-hour to the day of the 60 carriers working for post offices in Carson City, but Swift said they take it in stride.

"It's not a lot of extra time. There is more hauling and lifting, but not a lot more time. But the carriers are 100 percent behind it," Swift said.

Carson City letter carriers have been participating in the national program since 1993.

"This is a great program that came out as a national project by the letter carriers," Swift said. "Virtually every community in the country benefits from this drive."

The drive is usually held on the second Saturday in May. In collecting the more than 43,000 pounds, the carriers bested last year's total of approximately 39,000 pounds.

According to America's Second Harvest, 38 million people don't have enough food, are hungry, or at risk of hunger. Approximately one in four people in a soup kitchen line is a child.

• Contact reporter Jarid Shipley at jshipley@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.