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Neither heat nor rain stops food drive

Postal carriers will be collecting nonperishable food items for the needy today.

By JEAN HELLER
Published May 14, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - The sun was blazing and the humidity creeping up to summer levels, but Joe Henschen was a mail carrier with a special mission this week, which made him as unstoppable as the U.S. Postal Service motto.

Henschen and his colleagues across the nation were distributing bags to homes and businesses in the hope of finding them filled with nonperishable food items today in what has grown to be one of the most successful annual drives in the country.

"We actually don't have nearly enough of the official bags to go around, so we count on people to improvise," Henschen said as he paused with his bicycle in the shade of a tree in northeast St. Petersburg. "We'll pick up (food in) anything, paper, plastic, boxes, anything."

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is in its 15th year, sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Last year, the drive netted nearly 71-million pounds of food nationwide, a huge chunk of that total coming from the Tampa Bay area.

The NALC branch that covers St. Petersburg and part of mid-Pinellas County with 1,500 mail carriers collected 1.3-million pounds of food, third best in the country among large branches. Buffalo, N.Y. collected more but has 5,000 carriers.

The Clearwater and Tampa branches, both smaller than St. Petersburg, collected more than 1-million pounds each.

"Of the 71-million total, you've got 3.5-million of it coming from the Tampa Bay area," Henschen said. "That's pretty remarkable."

According to Jim Good, who helps run the drive in Hillsborough County, collections in the Tampa Bay area surpass results in most larger areas in the North.

"I don't know why that is, but it's heartwarming," Good said.

The food stays in the jurisdiction where it is collected, so that people who donate are helping neighbors.

"We have bigger food drives during the holidays, but that's when the plight of the needy is on everyone's mind," said Marc Sutherland, resource development director of America's Second Harvest in Tampa.

For Everybody's Tabernacle in Clearwater, the postal workers' food drive is critical.

"We're a homeless emergency project that houses, feeds and clothes 200 people a day without any public support," said Rebecca Lett, assistant development director. "Over the summer, donations are down because school's out, people are going on vacation, and nobody's thinking about people without food. This is very big for us."

Since all items must be nonperishable, those recommended are canned meat and fish, vegetables, fruit, sloppy joes, rice, pasta, soup and baby food and supplies. All donations should be unopened, and glass containers are discouraged because of the weight and the danger of breakage.

One item on the shopping list of all the food banks in the area is peanut butter in plastic jars because there are so many needy children who have school lunch programs for nine months of the year but have nothing during the summer.

At single-family residences, food should be left in bags or boxes by the mailboxes first thing this morning. Single large containers are used at many condominiums. As carriers drop off mail, they will pick up the food.

Drew Von Bergen, the food drive's national coordinator in Washington, said mail carriers who participate are all volunteers, "but almost all of them do it."

"They may grumble when they're doing it, but by the end of the day there are smiles on their faces when they see all the food they collected."

Von Bergen said the Postal Service itself helps a great deal by allowing the carriers to deliver bags and pick up food during working hours, and by supplying trucks, loading docks and buildings for storage.

According to Henschen, many people make special shopping trips to buy food for the drive while others use the drive as an opportunity to clean out their pantries.

"We've gotten gallon jugs of mayonnaise and giant, industrial-sized cans of vegetables," Henschen said. "There was a time when people would put out 60 cans of creamed anything. It's all welcome."

[Last modified May 14, 2005, 01:16:31]