Mail carriers, Second Harvest team up for community food drive 

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV)-- The Second Harvest Community Food Bank is teaming up with the National Association of Letter Carriers to host its annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive

The food drive will take place Saturday, May 9, where residents can leave donations of non-perishable food items in a bag near their mailbox for collection.

All donations collected will go directly to local Second Harvest programs, so everything donated stays in each community. Donations from St. Joseph will support St. Joseph pantries, and contributions from Savannah will go to pantries in Savannah. 

Chad Higdon, CEO of Second Harvest Community Food Bank, said the food drive matters—and its history makes it matter even more.  

“Food resources were kind of replenished during his time of the year for the local food pantries so this is a great way for us to partner with letter carriers throughout our 18 counties that we serve,” Higdon said.  

At its core, he said, the goal is to help people get the food they need and restock shelves for families feeling the strain of rising costs.  

Last year, they collected more than 23,000 pounds of food to support local pantries across the region.  

“It doesn’t take much to just look at what you have for yourself and donate some cereal or some cans of food and really just thankful for the letter carriers who are out there,” Higdon said.  

Dustin Hassler, a coordinator with the National Association of Letter Carriers, said collections are still just getting started, but expectations are high once the drive officially kicks off Saturday.  

“Normally we collect from anywhere from 25-35 thousand pounds in each food drive. The food drive is very important to the community and the motor carrier food drive is kind of a stop gap between the summer months to help replenish what needs of food drive,” Hassler said.  

Tera Jarrett, a strategic communications specialist, said they’ve been running the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive for 30 years—and partnerships with organizations like Second Harvest are key.  

Jarrett said they’re excited to kick off this year’s donation drive, with collection bags starting to go out Tuesday, May 5.  

“If you happen to not get a sack or you have so much food that you need additional sacks, feel free to use any sack that you have be it a Walmart sack Dillard sack or whichever,” Jarrett said.  

Since the drive began, it has collected more than 1.8 billion pounds of food—a milestone which Jarrett said was a major success. 

It’s now one of the largest food drives in the country, bringing together postal workers and food bank partners nationwide to make it all possible.  

“We work with the harvesters and they will come by and carry all your donated goods and pick it up and take it back to be distributed,” Jarrett said.  

Organizers are asking for non-perishable items—things like canned goods, pasta and boxed meals. Just place them in a bag and leave them by the mailbox for pickup.