Many Volunteers Still Needed For May 14 Postal Food Drive

By John Voket

Newtown Social Services Director Anne Piccini has vivid memories of what summer months were like before the annual Postal Carriers Food Drive.

“The food pantry shelves were empty,” she recalled earlier this week while standing among cans of chili and boxes of cereal in the modest store room at Town Hall South. “We had to scrape together money from donations so we could go out and buy food for the hungry families.”

But in the ensuing years as the annual spring collection by postal workers in Newtown and communities across Connecticut became more and more successful, Ms Piccini no longer has to worry about the traditional early summer slump in donated food staples. In fact, most of the postal collections have been so successful that the supplies typically last until holiday season food drives ramp up in the fall.

According to Nancy Carrington, executive director of the Connecticut Food Bank, this is a vitally important fact that takes many people by surprise.

“The summer months tend to be the worst time for hungry people, especially children, because those kids are typically out of school and without access to district school meal programs that provide nutritious lunches and breakfast in many cases,” Ms Carrington said in a recent interview. “People don’t usually think of the summertime as a needy time for the hungry. But in most cases, when food is accessible, it tends to be fast food that doesn’t provide the important nutritional benefits people, and especially children, need in order to develop into healthy adults.”

That is why Newtown’s Social Services office is going to work a few weeks early to both raise awareness of the need for donations, as well as to call for volunteers to either drive around their neighborhoods collecting bags of donated food, or to help sort the food as it rolls into the Social Services office.

“This year’s Postal Food Drive will take place Saturday, May 14,” Ms Piccini said. “It’s a bit earlier than normal, so we want to be sure people are aware so they can put bags or boxes of donated food out by their mailboxes.”

She said volunteers who are willing to help local postal carriers by collecting the food donations can begin as early as 9 am, but they need to coordinate through the Social Services office.

“Last year we had volunteers getting yelled at when people saw it wasn’t a mail truck picking up the donated food,” she said. “But because of the long rural mail routes, our carriers need a lot of help. They can’t get all the food into their vehicles, especially during the early parts of their routes.”

And once that food begins coming in, there is a need for capable volunteers to help sort it and stock it, she said.

“We especially need sorters later as the larger deliveries arrive later in the day, between noon and 5 pm,” Ms Piccini said. “But we can put folks to work even if they just have an hour to give.”

Runners who begin collecting food from the mailbox locations will start delivering back to Town Hall South by about 10 am. Shifts for sorters can begin as early as that, but Ms Piccini said volunteers should ideally plan to work either from 11 am to 2 pm, or from 2 to 5 pm.

She said that youngsters from middle school age on up are welcome to lend a hand, but in her experience, those younger tend to get bored and may be better suited as helpers on the volunteer collection routes. The Social Service office also encourages those requiring community service time to participate.

“We’ll prepare letters for anyone who wants to participate for community service,” Ms Piccini said. “They can get four, six, even eight hours done on this one activity.”

Anyone that can help is encouraged to contact the Social Services office at 270-4330 as soon as possible to schedule a volunteer shift. All volunteers will be contributing to this very important summertime initiative.

“Without the supplies we collect during this postal food drive May 14, we would definitely have individuals and children right here in Newtown going hungry this summer,” she said. “So it’s even more important for folks to get involved now. It’s easy to remember the needy at holiday time, but for the hungry, summer can be the roughest season of the year.”