Diet chocolate fudge soda in a can.
Pickled quail eggs in a jar.
Sliced kiwi in a can.
Volunteering at a massive one-day food drive like Stamp Out Hunger is a sure-fire way to discover food items you may not have known existed!
Sure, we get lots and lots of pantry staples like canned veggies, macaroni and cheese, and soup. And we’re certainly grateful for every single item that is donated by our generous community.
But it’s the unusual items that delight and entertain our volunteers as they sort the food at each post office.
At the South County Post Office, volunteers were touched by the St. Louis County resident who donated a jar of spaghetti sauce neatly taped to a coordinating box of pasta.
In Kirkwood, volunteers at the post office were charmed by handwritten thank yous to letter carriers stapled to the bags of food.
Stamp Out Hunger is an annual event that takes place across the nation on the second Saturday in May.
Here in St. Louis, this drive mobilizes not just letter carriers and post office staff, but also St. Louis Area Foodbank employees, pantry staff, community volunteers, high school students and local businesses.
Weeks before the drive, volunteers at the Foodbank neatly folded the plastic bags and attached them to the Stamp Out Hunger reminder cards. From there, we relied on the hard work of letter carriers to deliver them.
With all of our collective efforts, we collected 232,842 pounds of food last Saturday, and there’s still more food rolling in!
With the support of the generous residents of St. Louis city and county, the Foodbank has received 10,000 more pounds than we did from the 2012 drive!
Thanks to all who helped make this drive a success!
Check out photos on our Facebook page.
