Can by can, box bybox, container by con-tainer, the donationsthat had been left next

to the mailboxes of postal customersalong carriers’ mail routes piled up, firstat postal stations, then in communityfood banks, pantries and shelters wherethe food will provide nutrition to hungryfamilies—men, women and children—throughout the coming summer months.

By the time the 2010 drive ended onSaturday, May 8, the nearly two-decades-old effort had reached a pinna-

cle that seemed unimaginable when thefirst pilot drive was held in 10 cities in1991—more than a billion pounds ofnon-perishable items had been trans-ferred from a giving and charitable pub-lic to local food distribution centers,thanks to letter carriers.

That the billion-pound thresholdwould be achieved became apparentwithin only a few days after the morethan 1,400 NALC branches concludedtheir drives, as coordinators from aboutone-fourth of the participating branchessubmitted preliminary reports that

ONEBILLION

POUNDS

2 POSTAL RECORD I JUNE 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS

For 18 years, letter carriers repre-sented by the National Association of Letter

Carriers have sacrificed their time—not to mentiontheir backs, shoulders, arms, legs and feet—on thesecond Saturday in May to carry out one of the most meaningful humanitarian events in America:delivering food to families in need.

18THANNUALFOODDRIVE

OF

CARING

showed 19,724,393 pounds had alreadybeen counted. The total at the end of the2009 drive was 982.7 million pounds, soeven these partial tallies easily pushedthe overall 18-year total above the onebillion-pound mark.

As a result, Food Drive Day 2010 wasa particularly historic occasion in theunion’s ongoing effort to help “stampout hunger.”

Many helping handsNALC President Fred Rolando praised

all active and retired members, theircounterparts in the National Rural LetterCarriers’ Association (NRLCA), and thecountless other volunteers whose dedica-tion and compassion to help feed needyfamilies have been enduring hallmarksof the drive’s success.

“You all were fantastic,” Rolando said.“I’m sure there were a lot of sore backsand tired legs by the end of the day, butthere also was the satisfaction of know-ing that you sacrificed for a good cause.

“Our union and its members areproud to provide a helping hand to themillions of citizens who recognize thathunger in America is a continuing prob-lem and want to assist their neighbors intime of need,” Rolando said. “Collectingthese donations from the mailboxes andtaking them to local food banks andpantries is in keeping with our motto of‘Delivering for America.’”

From the NALC’s South Pacific out-post in Guam, through the giant fooddrive states of California and Florida, tothe Mississippi River Valley and up intoNew England, reports came into NALCHeadquarters of record collections—due mainly to some very good weatheracross the country and increased publicawareness of the great need for fooddonations, plus the expansion of deliv-ery of plastic bags to customers along-side the traditional Campbell Soup-USPS postcards.

“I really think the people of the Ozarksjust dug deeper to help the people,” fooddrive coordinator Tammie Yates of

Springfield, Missouri Branch 203 told herlocal News-Leader newspaper.

At the Windsor Food Pantry in Col-orado, director Brenda Heckman wasappreciative of the letter carriers’ effort.

“It has restored our shelves,” she wasquoted on coloradoan.com. “We wererunning low on things, but we’re back inbusiness now.”

Tom Newell of the Denton, TexasCommunity Food Center said the drivewas “definitely a success,” but he also putit in perspective for KDAF-TV, saying thefood would run out shortly because“summertime is typically a challengingtime as far as keeping food stocked.”

Also reflecting the dire state of manyfood banks and pantries were commentsfrom Hawaii Food Bank director PollyKauahi to KITV after her organizationreceived more than 200,000 pounds ofdonations in Honolulu. She asked islandresidents to keep the donations coming.

“Those [food] lines have grown in therecent years and they continue to growas the economy is still tight for peoplethat are over-working, under-working,and just working as hard as they can toput food on their table,” Kauahi said.

Results stream inIn 2009, a record 73.4 million pounds

of food was delivered to community foodbanks and pantries thanks to the drive.

Final official results of this year’s campaign, which was conducted inmore than 10,000 cities and towns in all50 states, the District of Columbia,Guam and Puerto Rico, were scheduledto be announced on June 1, after thisissue of The Postal Record went to press.A complete report on the drive, includ-ing branch-by-branch weight totals andphotos, will appear in the July issue.

Although NALC does not encour-age collecting monetary donationsalong routes as part of the food drive,some customers nevertheless leftchecks or cash in envelopes. Brancheswere allowed to convert any donationsat a rate of one pound per dollar to

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS JUNE 2010 I POSTAL RECORD 3

Opposite page (top-bottom): Columbus,Ohio Branch 78’s Jason Fry collectsdonations from a generous patron; quitethe haul in Branch 2462, Van Nuys, Cali-fornia; and Fresno, California Branch231 member Cindy Cooper unloads atHughes Station.

Above: Branch 129 Baton Rouge, Lousiana’s Tom King and CharmaineMitchell work together with clerk LisaMatthews.

Below: San Francisco, California Branch214’s Wing Woo, a 55-year retired carrier, comes back to help out.

Bottom: Branch 248 Asheville, NorthCarolina carrier David McElrath makesroom for more food.

4 POSTAL RECORD I JUNE 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS

include in the total collection amountthey reported.

The final reports mailed by branchesto NALC Headquarters on special yellowforms, or faxed or e-mailed by May 25,will be the only amounts used to deter-mine the top branches in 10 member-ship categories that will receive anNALC award plaque at the union’s bien-nial convention in Anaheim, California,in August. Each of those branches willalso receive a 1,000-can donation of soupthat will be delivered to the local foodbank or pantry of their choice, courtesyof the Campbell Soup Company, a long-time major co-sponsor and national part-ner of the NALC Food Drive.

Invaluable supportPresident Rolando expressed the

union’s special appreciation to Camp-bell’s and to all the national partners inthe drive, including the U.S. Postal Ser-vice, the NRLCA, Valpak, United WayWorldwide and local United Ways, theAFL-CIO and the Feeding America foodbank network.

He also thanked “Family Circus” car-toonists Bil and Jeff Keane, who againprovided artwork to promote the fooddrive, as well as husband-and-wife actorsDavid Arquette and Courteney Cox,National Hot Rod Association driverAshley Force Hood, and “AmericanIdol” host and radio personality RyanSeacrest, all of whom generouslyendorsed the drive.

The 2010 drive was a success due toseveral factors, not least of which was thenew national partner status conferred onthe NRLCA. Although thousands of ruralcarriers have assisted in the drive formany years, numerous NALC branchcoordinators noted that even more ruralcarriers were eager to participate thisyear and that there seemed to be arenewed sense of enthusiasm amongthem. Thanks to its new national partnerstanding, the NRLCA logo was includedfor the first time this year on all fooddrive promotional materials.

Letter carriers delivered more than126 million postcards, sponsored byCampbell Soup and the United StatesPostal Service’s Priority Mail, to homesacross the nation just before the drive’sdate, again providing a last-minutereminder to customers to place bags ofnon-perishable food at their mailboxeson May 8. And even before the postcardswent out, another longtime national part-ner, Valpak, mailed more than 44 millionenvelopes containing marketing itemsand coupons, each emblazoned with a food drive promotion on the front ofthe envelope.

An ongoing effortThe national, coordinated effort by the

NALC to help fight hunger in Americagrew out of discussions in 1991 by anumber of leaders at the time, includingNALC President Vincent R. Sombrotto,AFL-CIO Community Services DirectorJoseph Velasquez and Postmaster Gen-eral Anthony Frank. A pilot drive washeld in 10 cities in October that sameyear, modeled on a successful one thathad been conducted by Phoenix, ArizonaBranch 576. The 10-city pilot proved sosuccessful that work began immediatelyon turning it into a nationwide effort.

Input from food banks and pantriessuggested that late spring would be thebest time to conduct such a drive, sinceby then most food banks in the countrybegin to run out of the donations theyreceived the previous fall and winter,during the Thanksgiving and Christmasholiday periods.

A revamped drive was organized for May 1993 with a goal of having atleast one NALC branch participating in each of the 50 states. The result wasastounding: More than 11 million poundsof food was collected—a one-day recordin the United States—with more than 220union branches getting involved. Thedrive then continued to grow, surpassingthe 70 million-pound mark in each of thelast five years and now vaulting beyondthe one billion-pound benchmark. ✉

Counterclockwise from top r: Rep.Ron Klein (D-FL) led the kickoff inPompano Beach for South FloridaBranch 1071; Branch 157, Philadelphiacarriers and managers team up tolaunch the drive; Vincennes, IndianaBranch 377 member Bill Stanleyunloads at the post office back dock;Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) thanks Min-neapolis, Minnesota Branch 9 Presi-dent Pam Donato for the work thecarriers do; and Secaucus MayorMichael Gonnelli lends a hand to NewJersey Merged Branch 38 carriers Jay Tipton, Mark McGrady and JerseyCity Branch 42 food drive coordinatorRaj Nagpal.