Letter Carriers Aim to Stamp Out Hunger

Burlington, Vermont – May 6, 2009

Letter carriers won’t just be picking up your mail this weekend — they’ll also be picking up food donations.

Saturday marks the annual U.S. Post Office food drive. People can leave non-perishable food at their mail boxes, and carriers will deliver it to a local food shelf.

Last year, letter carriers in Chittenden County collected about 30,000 pounds of food.

“It means so much,” said Rachel Moss of the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. “Right now is such a critical time for us. There’s a huge shortage overall of food in the charitable food systems. Our donations here at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf have been down by as much as 65 percent over the last year and we’ve had a huge increase in demand. We’ve had over a thousand new people coming asking for food assistance.”

Here in Chittenden County, you can still take part even if you’ll be away this weekend. Starting today, you can also drop food off at the carrier station at 320 Pine Street in Burlington.

Kate Duffy – WCAX News