Stamp Out Hunger food drive set for Saturday

The 31st annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive will be running in Havre and across the U.S. Saturday, with local mail carriers collecting non-perishable food items left near mailboxes during their routes.

The event, organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers, has taken almost 2 billion pounds of food to food banks across the U.S. over its history, and Havre is no exception.

One of the event's primary local organizers, letter carrier Travis Abdallah, said they typically collect between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds of food every year and he's hoping for similar numbers this year.

"I consider 4,000 pounds a good haul," Abdallah said. " ... We're always hopeful."

A press release from the U.S. Postal Service said the need is great, as 42 million Americans don't know where their next meal is going to come from. 12 million of those are children and more than 5 million are senior citizens, and the latter group is often too embarrassed to ask for the help they need, the release said.

"Please, help us in our fight to end hunger," it said.

Abdallah has been with the postal service for more than 40 years and has participated in every one of the services' 31 food drives, and participation has stayed consistent over all those years.

He said they did had to cancel once in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2021 and 2022 participation went right back up to normal levels.

As for this year, he said, they are optimistic as always, but inflation might understandably affect donations.

"With inflation, it's tougher for everyone," Abdallah said.

He said the reason the service does the drive at this time of year is because across the U.S. donations tend to go up in the winter for the holidays, but spring and summer tend to see less giving, so they try to do it then.

"It's a good cause, we know the food bank is hurting for non-perishable items," he said.

Abdallah said they will take anything they get to District 4 Human Resources Development Council, which will distribute the donations to the food bank.

He said he's excited for another year of the drive and encouraged everyone to leave any non-perishable food items they want to donate by their mailboxes Saturday, May 13, before their carrier comes.