VENTURA COUNTY — On Saturday, May 14, Ventura County letter carriers will be caravanning more than just incoming and outgoing mail; and community members won’t have to venture far from their doorsteps to give back to the local hungry in a big way. The day will mark the 24th annual National Letter Carriers’ “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive –the largest single-day food drive—when thousands of letter carriers across the country will collect residences’ food donations for their local food banks.
Ventura County residents are asked to leave non-perishable, protein-rich foods in a bag next to their mailboxes for letter carriers to pick up while on their daily route. The donations will then be collected from participating post offices and taken to FOOD Share’s distribution site in Oxnard.
Corporate sponsor of the local event, Farmers Insurance, will team up with the National Association of Letter Carriers for its eighth consecutive year to provide funds, resources and company volunteers to support FOOD Share’s missions of feeding, nourishing and educating the hungry of Ventura County.
For a few weeks leading up the largest single-day food drive, FOOD Share representatives will host Stand Ups at participating post office locations to “rally up the troops” and get them ready for the big day.
“It’s amazing how much a single-day food drive can have a profound impact replenishing our distribution warehouse’s shelves,” explains Bonnie Atmore, president and CEO of FOOD Share. “We are so grateful to our local letter carriers who, last year, shepherded more than 130,000 pounds of food from around the county to ensure thousands of children, seniors and adults do not go hungry this month.”
Since its launch in 1991, the food drive has collected more than 1 billion pounds of food has been collected nationwide.
This year’s Stamp Out Hunger event will be the first major food drive of FOOD Share’s newest food, funds and awareness campaign, Share16, to help close the gap for the need that still remains in communities across the county. Share16 speaks to the need (1 in 6) and the solution ($16 per week) in a viral awareness initiative to inform, inspire, engage and mobilize the community behind the FOOD Share mission and give business and other organizations the opportunity to align themselves with FOOD Share through various levels of support.
Participating Post Offices:
- Thousand Oaks Main Post Office, 3435 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks
- East Ventura Post Office, 41 S. Wake Forrest Dr., Ventura
- Ventura Main Post Office, 675 E. Santa Clara St., Ventura
- Oxnard Main Post Office, 1961 N. “C” St., Oxnard
About FOOD Share: More than 35 years ago, eight citizens performed a good deed by distributing food to those who were in need underneath a Ventura bridge. The early philanthropic movement quickly formed into what is now Ventura County’s regional food bank, FOOD Share, which has grown from serving a few hundred hungry people per month to 74,500 people. Today, staff and volunteers distribute more than 12 million pounds of food annually from two warehouses; more than 200 partner agencies, which include neighborhood and church food distributions and soup kitchens; as well as hunger assistance programs. FOOD Share’s programs provide healthy nutrition and education to children, families and seniors, which include: Kids’ Farmers Market, SENIOR Share, Nutrition Education, Community Market, SoCal Gas CARE Program and more. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, FOOD Share is a member of the Feeding America network, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.
In 2016, FOOD Share is rallying the community behind a viral initiative encouraging the public, local businesses, major corporations and community leaders and stakeholders to help combat hunger through an outreach campaign called Share16. The Share16 Challenge asks the community to share ways in which they support FOOD Share by documenting their experiences and efforts on social media with the #Share16 hashtag.
For more information about FOOD Share, visit www.foodshare.com. Find us on Facebook and Twitter.