Augusta, Ga. (WJBF)- What if ending hunger were as easy as a trip to your mailbox?
The National Association of Letter Carriers is trying to make it that simple with their Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
They place plastic bags in mailboxes with post card reminding people to donate-all you do is put food in the bag by your mailbox-and volunteer mailmen and mailwomen pick them up.
“We wanted to make it as easy as possible for everyone to donate,” said Ashley Siler, executive and marketing coordinator at Golden Harvest Food Bank. “I walked out this morning in my pajamas and put our food donation by our mailbox so it took ten seconds, and it was the easiest thing I’ve ever had to do for a food drive. “
This program has been going on around the country for 24 years. Golden Harvest Food Bank is grateful to be on the receiving end of it locally, especially since they struggle during the summer.
“Kids are home from school, we’ve got a lot of grandparents that are keeping kids that normally would rely on the free meals at school,” Siler said. “These grandparents are on fixed income, so they’re visiting the pantries more frequently to help feed their families.”
The situation is already grim for a quarter of children in the CSRA–one in four is food insecure, which means they don’t have access to the food they need. For local adults, it’s one in five-but still worse than the national average of one in six.
Stamp Out Hunger is helping. Last year it brought in over 178,000 pounds of food in the CSRA.
“We’re hoping for similar numbers this year,” Siler said. “We’re just so lucky and thankful that it has continued and grown every year and that we’re a part of it.”
But it takes a village.
“People all across the CSRA have put bags of food by their mailboxes. The mail carriers have been out all day picking them up and then we’re out here waiting at the post office for them to bring them back in their trucks and we’re going to unload them and bring them back to Golden Harvest so we can distribute them,” she said.
Stamp Out Hunger brought in about 71 million pounds of non-perishable food across the country last year.
Golden Harvest needs volunteers year-round. Click here to learn how to you can help.
