Community Corner

Postal Employees to Host Annual Food Drive to Benefit ECHO

Postal employees will collect food at area residents' mailboxes May 14.

On Saturday May 14, the National Association of Letter Carriers will host its annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive. This is the largest national one-day food drive.

This year post offices in Seffner, Riverview, Brandon and Valrico will help fill greater Brandon/ Riverview  food pantries.

The food will be collected and sorted by the Emergency Care Help Organization in Brandon. Established in 1987, ECHO is one of the largest food pantries in Eastern Hillsborough county and supplies food and clothing to more than 11,000 residents per year. 

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ECHO will then distribute some of the food to smaller food pantries in the area. Last year, the postal food drive collected right at 89,000 pounds of food.

"Hunger in our area is a real problem," said ECHO executive director Stacey Efaw. "Currently one in six families is the Tampa Bay area is relying on food assistance. ZIP code 33510 in Brandon has recently been one of the highest areas for new food stamps applications."

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 Efaw said she's grateful to the efforts of the area's postal employees.

"This food drive is a wonderful way to directly help your neighbor in need," added Efaw. "The food collected in the greater Brandon area is given to families and individuals who live in the greater Brandon area. The food you leave by your mailbox on Saturday, May 14, will end up in the kitchen of someone who is having a really hard time. "

Efaw said donations of nonperishable foods including cereal, pasta, rice, canned vegetables and fruit, peanut butter and products that need no refrigeration will be accepted.

"It’s so easy, too," she said. "Just leave a bag of food on or by your mailbox. Letter carriers and volunteers will pick it up and bring it to ECHO.:

Volunteers are needed on Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15 at ECHO, 507 N. Parsons Ave., Brandon, to help unload and box the food. The food will be sorted at Feeding America in Tampa, which has offered its facility and equipment to help with the sorting.

"This is a tremendous help as, in the past, the ECHO volunteers have had to sort the food outside in the parking lot," said Efaw.

To sign up to volunteer, visit www.echofl.org

To learn more about history of postal carriers food drive http://www.usps.com/communications/community/fooddrive.htm

To learn more about hunger in our area


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