Letter carriers stamp out hunger across the country

All across the nation, the United States Postal Service is stamping out hunger with its annual food drive.

The food collected from the drive will help stock the shelves of local food banks.

It’s the largest one-day food drive in the world. For the last 21 years, letter carriers like Dave Duncan, have tried to stamp out hunger in their own communities.

“Because of the economy and everything, there are more people without jobs and more people needing food assistance,” said Duncan.

Duncan has been stamping out hunger for the last decade. Together with his sons, Tristan and Trinity, they pick up non-perishable food items for the fundraiser every May.

“Last year we got 50,000 pounds in one day,” said Duncan. “The year before that we also got 50,000 pounds, before that it was 35,000 pounds and the year before that it was 30,000 pounds — so we’ve been gradually increasing.”

Duncan said the fundraiser is a community-wide effort. Students in Bonneville School District 93 took time out of their school day a couple of weeks ago to assemble 44,000 grocery bags with mail cards, hoping to drum up donations for a growing need.

“The union for the letter carriers saw the need out here and that’s why we do this because we do deal with people face to face every day,” said Duncan.

If you missed Saturday ‘s pick-up you can take your charitable items directly to a post office near you and they will make sure it gets to your local food bank.

Statistics from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare show a staggering number of Idahoans are on food stamps — 17 percent statewide.