The largest single-day food drive in the United States is happening Saturday here in the Valley.
St. Mary’s Food Bank’s annual “Stamp Out Hunger” event is an chance to restock shelves ahead of the summer months.
Jerry Brown is with St. Mary’s Food Bank. He said his organization and others like it typically run low around this time of year.
“And so at the same time our demand rises to its highest point in the year, our donations sink to its lowest level. It’s a time of the year that we always brace for in food banks,” Brown said.
When kids are out of school, families need to provide more meals, so food bank demand increases.
“At any one time our warehouse can hold up to six million pounds of food and I would say we are probably down at around the two million pound mark,” Brown said. “That sounds like a lot of food, but we distribute 250,000 meals a day and we distribute 40,000 emergency food boxes every month.”
Brown says canned food donations should be placed next to the mailbox. Some 5,000 letter carriers will pick up donations on their regular mail routes.
