By Sylvia Rosen
Correspondent
—
Yesterday, you may have noticed a little something extra in your mailbox.
Letter carriers dropped off postcard reminders and plastic bags encouraging residents to participate in this year's Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
The drive runs locally in Salem, Beverly, Danvers, Hamilton, Ipswich, Peabody, Manchester, Marblehead, Swampscott, Topsfield and Wenham. It is the largest one-day food drive in the country, involving 10,000 cities and towns nationwide.
Residents are asked to fill a plastic bag with nonbreakable, nonperishable foods and place it by their mailbox for the letter carrier to pick up.
The National Association of Letter Carriers will conduct the food drive this Saturday.
Julie Bishop, vice president at the Essex County Community Foundation, said most local food pantries have seen a 35 percent increase in the number of people seeking help over the last two years, fueled in large part by the recession.
The Community Foundation donates plastic bags for residents to fill in some cities and towns, serving as a reminder to residents about the food drive.
"In Gloucester, they had an 80 percent increase in the amount of food they collected because of the bags," Bishop said.
The timing of this drive is important for pantries.
"The summer is notoriously a slow time for giving," Sue Gabriel of Beverly Bootstraps said. "Boy Scouts don't meet, schools are out, and there are less people doing food drives and collections."
It's also a time when more people are in need of food, she said, because children don't get the free or reduced-price lunches at school.
Last year, the nationwide drive collected 73.4 million pounds of food donations for local pantries. This year, Dana Salo, president of NALC's Branch 33 on the North Shore, said they are shooting for a billion pounds.
"We are just trying to get the word out," he said. "It's so easy to help and get involved."
Eddie Lendall, food drive coordinator for NALC Branch 25 in Salem, is optimistic about reaching the goal.
"Last year, we collected 29,700 pounds in Salem alone," he said. "This is a historic year because we are going to break the 1 billion pound mark across the country."
Lendall said the best part about the food drive is it's the community helping the community.
"When people make a donation, they are really making a donation to people in their community," he said.
Food will be divided among these local pantries:
Salem: The Plummer Home for Boys, St. Joseph Food Pantry, The Salem Pantry at the First Universalist Church and the Salvation Army.
Beverly: Beverly Bootstraps, Beverly Church of the Nazarene Food Pantry and the Salvation Army.
Danvers: People to People food pantry
Hamilton: Accord Food Pantry
Ipswich: Ipswich Food Pantry
Marblehead: Marblehead Food Pantry
Peabody: Haven From Hunger
