By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Dear Local Residents: It’s that time of year again, when Lake Orion Postal Carriers will get their workouts this Saturday, May 9 at the end of your driveway.
Saturday marks the 23rd annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, the largest food drive in the United States, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers and United States Postal Service.
Local postal carriers will be lifting, hauling and transferring all types of non-perishable food into their trucks, to be donated completely to the Oxford/Orion FISH food pantry.
Simply leave non-perishable goods’anything in a can, bag or box’in or near each residential mailbox to be picked up by local postal carriers on their regular routes.
Residents are asked to use sturdy bags and donate food including canned soup, canned vegetables, peanut butter, pasta, rice and cereal on Saturday morning, and leave it next to their mailbox.
Saturday is one of the busiest days of the year for postal carriers.
‘If it runs into over time, it runs into overtime, but it’s a labor of love. We don’t mind it. It’s really good for the community and it brings us all together,? Sheila Jones, a 17-year Lake Orion postal carrier, and 30 year U.S. carrier, said.
In 2014, Americans donated a total of 72.5 million pounds of food, with Lake Orion and Oxford post offices contributing 30,000 pounds to local families in need.
Every donated item from Lake Orion and Oxford goes to the Oxford/Orion FISH food pantry in Oxford Township, which serves residents of Lake Orion, Oxford, Addison and Oakland Townships.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 50 million Americans are food insecure, living at risk of hunger, including nearly 16 million hungry children, and 4.8 million hungry seniors.
It’s simple to make a donation. Just make sure items are not expired.
For more information about the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, visit www.feedingamerica.org or www.nalc.org/community-servicefood-drive.
For food suggestions, call the Oxford/Orion FISH at 248-628-3933.