U.S. Postal Service hopes to help ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ this weekend

JACKSON, Tenn. — This weekend, when the U.S. Postal Service carrier comes to your house, they’re hoping to not only drop off your mail but also pick something up to help needy families in West Tennessee.

“Our shelves are getting low from what we collected during the holiday season, so this is a great way to help restock the shelves here at RIFA,” RIFA’s Executive Director Lisa Tillman said.

RIFA is hoping their shelves will be full again after a weekend of giving. Each year since 1991, the USPS spearheads a national effort to “Stamp Out Hunger.”

“Last year was a huge success,” Tillman said. “The letter carriers collected almost 23,000 pounds of food. That’s 11 tons of food that came here to RIFA and that we were able to use in our soup kitchen, in our food bank, in our food pantry.”

Many in Jackson received a bag in the mail with a few instructions. To donate Saturday, just go to your pantry and food cabinets, fill up a grocery bag of nonperishable food items and leave it on or by your mailbox.

“It’s from the heart,” USPS city carrier assistant Janelle Baker said. “We’re collecting these items from the heart. We’re not doing it for the money. We’re doing it because we want to feed the community.”

“This is a big day for the letter carriers,” Tillman said. “It’s a lot of extra work for them. They may be running a little late that day, and then we will go on Monday and pick up all the food that’s been collected.”

Jackson is one of 10,000 cities partnering in this national effort. Since the first “Stamp Out Hunger” event 24 years ago, the USPS has nationally brought in 1.3 billion pounds of food.