Donations Will Help "Stamp Out Hunger"

Nearly 5,000 pounds of food was collected Saturday in Cheshire during the annual "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive.

Letter carriers collected food donations placed at residents' mailboxes throughout town. The mail trucks then delivered the food to the Cheshire Food Pantry on Railroad Avenue.

Pantry Co-Director Craig Cappiello said they had been told that 1,200 pounds of food was a good goal. "This is almost five times that," he said.

Letter carrier Charlie Mello said he's collected food from the drive since it began 19 years ago. "People are very giving," he said. 

"It speaks to the generosity of the community," said co-director Fellis Jordan.

As the mail trucks pulled up to unload, pantry volunteers carried the food to a floor scale to weigh the donated food. It's the first time volunteers have been able to accurately record the amount donated. That's because the scale is a new feature at the pantry's larger location which opened in the fall of 2010.

The "Stamp Out Hunger"  food drive, which is organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers, (NALC) is always held on the second Saturday in May. It has become the nation’s largest single-day food drive. Last year, drive organizers from nearly 1,500 U.S. Post Office branches across the country, collected a record-setting total of 77.1 million pounds of food donations, according to a statement. The total for the drive over nearly 20 years is more than one billion pounds of food.

“As letter carriers, we see people on our routes six days a week that must rely on the generosity and assistance of others to help provide something as basic as a meal," Fredric V. Rolando, NALC president, said in the statement. "We’re proud to have established a program that truly provides assistance in every community across the country," he said.

Despite the generosity of millions of Americans who have supported the letter carriers' food drive in previous years, the need for food assistance has never been greater, the statement notes. Approximately one in three at risk of hunger in America is a child (17.2 million).

The Cheshire Food Pantry serves 200 residents weekly, according to volunteers.

For more information about the Cheshire Food Pantry, contact the  Youth and Social Services Department or call 203-271-6690.  

Editors note: The pantry is open five days a week, with morning appointments on Mon., Wed. and Fri., and afternoon and evening appointments on Tues. and Thur.