Local letter carriers look to ‘stamp out’ hunger

Posted on May 8, 2015
Stamp Out Hunger
‘Mailman Al’ poses next to a sign promoting the Stamp Out Hunger campaign. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Mailman Al)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Letter carriers will be picking up those paper bags they dropped off this week, hoping you will fill them with food.

Saturday marks the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Local coordinator ‘Mailman Al’ told WJBC Scott Laughlin, letter carriers are trying to make it easier to donate.

“We’ve partnered with a few places to make it bigger than last year,” he said. “We’ve partnered with HyVee which will be selling prepacked bags for $5 and $10.”

Food collection boxes have also been set up around the Illinois Wesleyan campus were 500 pounds of food has already been collected.

Vicki Lahr, a rural McLean County letter carrier, said paper bags were delivered to homes this week, but with bad weather expected, plastic might be a good alternative.

“It’s going to rain, so plastic would be better, but we do have a lot of success when we use the paper bags,” Lahr said.

The food will be given to local pantries.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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