COPPERAS COVE — The 23rd annual National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger food drive at the city’s post office helped local charities restock their shelves Saturday.
With assistance from 20 students in Copperas Cove Independent School District, U.S. Postal Service letter carriers were able to collect 3,567 pounds of food for Baptist Benevolence, My Brother’s House and Cove House, said Doris Mcrary of Baptist Benevolence.
“Right now we’re all in desperate need of food,” Mcrary said. “The need has never been greater, but right now all our shelves are empty.”
Every city’s postal carriers participate in the national drive to benefit local food pantries, she said. Anyone who wished to donate was able to leave canned or dry goods in a bag by their mailbox for carriers to pick up. As the trucks returned to the post office, volunteers helped unload, weigh and distribute the goods evenly between the charities.
“Our food drive’s timing is crucial. Food banks and pantries often receive the majority of their donations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons,” said letter carrier Antonio Perry in a news release. “By springtime, many pantries are depleted, entering the summer low on supplies at a time when many school breakfast and lunch programs are not available to children in need.”
Volunteers from Cove schools set up a collection point in front of the Cove Dollar Tree, working in shifts to gather as many goods as they could, said Copperas Cove High School business education teacher Heather Calhoun, who spearheaded the volunteer effort for Cove ISD.
“It wasn’t long ago that my children and I had to go to a food bank to get food, so it’s something I thought would be a good way to give back and to help other people out who may be in a hopeless situation,” she said.
Perry said 49 million Americans are unsure where their next meal is coming from. Sixteen million are children who experience the impact of hunger on their overall health and ability to perform in school and nearly 5 million seniors older than 60 are food insecure, with many who live on fixed incomes often too embarrassed to ask for help.
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