PENSACOLA — The 24th Annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, benefiting local food pantries, is May 14 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Every second Saturday in May, letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America collect nonperishable food items left by participating postal customers.
“Residents are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag of non-perishable foods, such as canned soups, fruits, vegetables or meat, dried pasta, rice, beans and cereal next to their mailbox prior to their regular mail delivery on Saturday, May 14,” an event spokesperson said.
Escambia and Santa Rosa letter carriers will collect food donations for these organizations:
●ACTS Ministry of Holley Assembly of God in Gulf Breeze
●We Care Ministries of Navarre United Methodist Church in Navarre
●Feeding The Gulf Coast (formerly Bay Area Food Bank) in Pace and Milton
●Warrington Emergency Aid Center
●Manna Food Pantries.
Last year, their organizations received 186,804 pounds of food during the food drive.
Manna Food Pantries helped 20,303 individuals through all of their pantries and programs in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Of those, 34 percent were children.
Feeding the Gulf Coast was able to provide almost 27,000 meals to the hungry through their partner agencies because of Stamp Out Hunger.
United Way of Escambia County, United States Postal Service, National Association of Letter Carriers, Feeding America, Publix, AARP, Valpak, National Rural Letter Carriers Association, AFL-CIO, Valassis Communications and Uncle Bob’s Self Storage are supporting this year’s drive.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Escambia, Santa Rosa letter carriers seek donations for local food pantries