Marion residents again stepped up to the plate and donated 30,000 pounds of non-perishable food in the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive to help stock community food pantries n the nation’s largest one-day effort to combat hunger.
The food was collected by letter carriers on May 8th as they delivered mail along their postal routes in Marion County. Local letter carrier and one of the primary organizers of the event, Richard Shroats, expressed profound appreciation to the thousands of Marion residents who left food by their mailboxes and the letter carriers, rural carriers, other postal employees, and volunteers who collected, processed, and dispersed the donations to local food pantries.
“This is an amazing testimony to the generosity of the people of Marion – even as many of them struggle to make their own ends meet in these hard times,” Shroats said. “Our members take pride in being able to serve their postal customers and help them assist local families and children.”
Final results showed 30,000 pounds of non-perishable food were collected in the annual event on the second Saturday in May, a slight decrease from recent years.
Shroats expressed appreciation to the union’s national partners in the drive – the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company (who donated a can of soup for every Facebook fan of the drive), United Way of Marion County, the AFL-CIO, and “Family Circus” cartoonist Bil Keane, who yearly provides special promotional artwork.
For more information on the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, please contact the United Way of Marion County at 740-383-3108.
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