VALDOSTA – Second Harvest of South Georgia and the National Association of Letter Carriers will join forces Saturday, May 13, to participate in Stamp Out Hunger.

It is the nation’s largest single-day food drive and Valdosta-Lowndes County has played an integral part in its history and success.

“Last year, the event collected approximately nearly 70,000 pounds of non-perishable food to help benefit our neighbors in need,” local food bank representatives said in a statement. “This annual food drive, now in its 31st year, began as a regional effort and grew to be a nationwide event that helps millions of Americans struggling to put food on the table.”

Demand for food assistance increased drastically during the first years of the pandemic – a large portion were people who suddenly found themselves in need of help for the first time, according to Second Harvest.

Second Harvest was able to increase its efforts and respond to this “extraordinary situation through generous funding and food donations from across the country,” representatives said. “The need for the food bank’s assistance has not decreased significantly as COVID became less prevalent, but contributions – both food and funds – to support the work have shown a sharp downturn.”

“It’s especially important that this food drive is successful this year,” said Frank Richards, Second Harvest chief executive officer. “Donations are down and the supply of federal commodity donations to food banks is at an all-time low.”

Stamp Out Hunger makes it easy for people to help feed seniors, children and families in the community.

Residents can simply collect and bag non-perishable food items and leave those bags by their mailboxes Saturday morning.

Letter carriers and Second Harvest will make sure the donations get to those in need. Participants are asked to donate canned items such as meat, fish, vegetables or soup, and other nutritious shelf-stable items like peanut butter, rice and beans.

For food and event safety, NALC and Second Harvest ask for no food donations in glass jars.

The rates of food insecurity in South Georgia are the highest in the state and among the highest in the nation, representatives said.

An estimated 84,000 people in the region live in a home without a stable source of food – nearly a third of whom are children.

“Second Harvest needs the community’s help to fill its shelves before the school year ends,” representatives said. “Summer is the time of greatest need in our area; during summer break, families must try to stretch their budget to pay for meals that their children receive through the school meal programs.”

“That’s a challenging task for many families even in the best of times. In these times of high food and fuel prices, it can be nearly impossible,” said Eliza McCall, chief programming officer for Second Harvest.

Second Harvest of South Georgia serves 26 counties and is the largest rural food bank in Georgia.

Headquartered in Valdosta, the organization has locations in Thomasville and Tifton. Through a network of more than 325 partner charities and through its programs, the food bank distributed more than 20 million pounds of food (or 14.6 million meals’ worth) in the last 12 months and feeds thousands of children daily through its Kids Cafe.

For more information on Stamp Out Hunger or Second Harvest of South Georgia, visit us online at www.feedingsga.org.

The National Association of Letter Carriers is the union of city delivery letter carriers working for the United States Postal Service founded in 1889.

Today, the NALC maintains its tradition as a union of more than 300,000 members in all 50 states and other U.S. jurisdictions.

For more information, visit http://nalc.org/commun/foodrive/index.html.