By By KATHIE HEMPEL / Niles Daily Star
NILES-Local postal carriers are hitting the streets to stamp out hunger,
This year marks the 15th Annual Stamp Out Hunger campaign that is being organized at post offices across the country. Food for the 2007 effort, sponsored by the United States Postal Service and Campbell's (soup company), will be collected Saturday May 12.
Residents are asked to leave non-perishable food, soap and paper goods by their mailboxes. Do not include items in glass containers.
Letter carriers and their helpers will be collecting items in Niles, Buchanan, Berrien Springs, Dowagiac, New Buffalo, Three Oaks, Galien and Edwardsburg, to be delivered to local food banks.
Last year local letter carriers collected 44,414 pounds. Nationwide 70.5 million pounds was collected.
It was the third consecutive year that over 70 million pounds were collected. The nationwide drive has collected over three-quarter of a billion pounds of food since its inception in 1993, retaining the distinction as the largest one-day food drive in the nation and probably in the world.
A challenge has been issued to the nearly 1,300 branches set to participate in the drive by National Association of Letter Carriers President William H. Young for each branch to increase its collections by 10 percent this year.
Local branch 775 of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the AFL-CIO, the United Mine Workers of America, The United Way of America and America's Second Harvest are joining forces for the food drive.
According to America's Second Harvest, the national food bank network, the latest data on hunger in America shows nearly 14 million American children reside in what official Washington now calls "food insecure" households. This means they regularly go hungry or are at serious risk of hunger,
Research indicates that even mild under-nutrition experienced by young children during critical periods may stunt growth and affect brain development.
Those interested in more information can call 683-5520.