The largest single-day food drive in the nation is set to return to Camden on Saturday, May 13.
The 31st annual National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will be held in Camden for the first-time since the pandemic hit. This is day where mail carriers in the U.S. Postal Service will collect non-perishable food items such as canned goods, pasta noodles, rice and boxed food.
Donors may attach bags to mailboxes for pickup. The mail carriers will then take that food, gather it up at the end and have it ready for local food banks.
This drive will help feed poverty-level families. Over the course of 30 years, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive has collected over 1.82 billion pounds of foods from people's mailboxes, according to information provided by NALC.
The three food banks that will take the donations are Ruby Snider Ministry Center, Maul Road Church of Christ and Christian Life Center First United Methodist Church. The food picked up by Ruby Snider and the two local churches will be given to local families that match a certain criteria of need.
Lloyd Fusilier, an employee of Camden USPS branch and an organizer of this event, said that COVID-19 has been the biggest reason why the events were not held in 2020 and 2021. Last year, a lack of personnel was the biggest challenge.
"It's important to the needy in the community, who rely on the shelter and encourages everyone to participate and raise a whole bunch of food for all the people in the community and adds more resources to the food banks," Fusilier said. "We partnered with a Ruby Snider, the Methodist Church downtown and the Methodist Church on Maul Road to assist us in collecting and getting the food in the right place to being used to help our community."
Events such as Stamp Out Hunger have helped big cities and small towns like Camden throughout the U.S. This event is crucial for feeding families as similar food drives set during the holidays have local food pantries depleted by spring, according to the USPS. This food drive will help families of Camden in need throughout the remainder of spring and going into the summer.