Every Second Saturday of May is a special day in America as it is the day our US Postal Service collects food items from people’s front porch. Over the last 24 national food drives, letter carriers have collected more than 1.5 billion pounds of food, helped by untold thousands of fellow postal employees, retired letter carriers, family members and friends. The food is then distributed to local food pantries within the same communities where it was collected.
Nine TIAA members joined together at the Network of Ministries food warehouse Monday, May 15 2017. Network of Ministries received truckloads of donated food that Monday after the food drive and we were there to help unload the sacks of food, weigh each sack, then transfer the contents to Network’s storage racks. This year surpasses all previous year’s collection (24,146 pounds, so far!) as we were not able to finish the job in the time we had allocated. We worked very hard but the floors were still filled with many tons of food by the time we left. Network folks were very grateful to us for helping get the annual food drive sorted and stored. They admit it will take weeks before their next group of volunteers will have all the food safely stored and ready for distribution to needy clients. Nevertheless, we felt very pleased that we made a difference in the life of many people that depend on Network for their weekly meal.