Stamp Out Hunger drive brings 223,000 pounds of food to metro non-profit organizations

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - The growing number of people in need of food assistance continues to grow in the metro. So many organizations like Harvesters are looking for as much help as they can get.

On Saturday, letter carriers here and all over the country took part in the 19th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive .

Ellen Feldhausen, Director of Communication, Harvesters-Community Food Network, said 2011 appears to have been a good year for the drive. She said they collected more than 100 tons of non-perishable goods including cereal, canned soup and pasta.

“This year’s Stamp Out Hunger Drive was a big success. What we have collected so far is more than 223,000 pounds. We still know there's more food to come in,” said Feldhausen.

On Wednesday, May 11th, letter carriers dropped off plastic bags for people to place their donations in.

Then on Saturday, they collected the bags.

“We are grateful to the community for their generosity but especially the letter carriers who carried 100 tons of food in addition to their heavy mailbags,” said Feldhausen.

On Monday, the food was taken to the Harvesters warehouse, 3801 Topping Ave., Kansas City, Missouri where it was sorted.

The Postal Service tries to send out a Stamp Out Hunger notice and plastic bag to every home across the country that will be part of the food drive. In 2010, carriers collected a record 77.1 million pounds of non-perishable food.

“This food drive is coming at a great time. The Letter Carriers Food Drive which happens in the spring, helps Harvesters stock our shelves for the summer. That's important because traditionally in summertime, donations go down.”

Feldhausen said they still have not collected the food items from Gardner, Kansas and said they often times get donations from those who did not have time to set them out on Saturday.

The food will be given to 620 non-profit agencies that get their food from Harvesters.