The Letter Carriers Deliver Once Again

Blame it on Tiny Tim. When the weather gets warm, the cupboard is bare. That is the traditional experience of food pantries serving the needy in communities everywhere, Newtown included.

During the holidays, when the typical family table sags under the bounty of meals to celebrate the season, people seem to reflect more on their fortunes and are mindful of the needs of the less fortunate. Food banks overflow with the proceeds of that reflection. In Newtown, scores of families in need make it through the holiday season without hunger as a houseguest. But by late spring and early summer, we are busy and preoccupied with school activities, or house and garden projects, or vacation plans, and we forget that people struggle throughout the year, not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

According to Second Harvest, the nation’s network of food banks, nearly half of all recipients of emergency food supplies live in suburban and rural areas. In Connecticut, 350,000 people are either hungry or are so limited in their resources that they are running out of food or are reducing the quantity or quality of food their family eats. More than 100,000 children in Connecticut under the age of 12 are either hungry or at risk of hunger, according to Second Harvest. In the summer, these kids are out of school and are not getting school lunches, which is a nutritional lifeline for so many children.

The need for food also affects other essential areas of well-being. Of the people who visit food panties to supplement their family’s nutrition, 35 percent had to choose between paying for food or utilities; 33 percent, between food or rent; and 32 percent, between food or medical care.

Leave it to the letter carriers to deliver. In recent years, the annual Letter Carriers Food Drive in the spring and early summer has restocked the food pantry of the Newtown Social Services Department just as the holiday donations are depleted. The drive is scheduled this year for Saturday, May 14. Households along the postal routes are asked to place nonperishable food items in a bag by the mailbox for collection by the carriers and the many volunteer who help with the both the collection and sorting of the donated goods.

Take a little time this week to either shop or to go through your own cupboard to find something to share.