By Oniska Blevins
The Selma Times-Journal

The Selma Area Food Bank and the local United States Postal Service are teaming up once again to fight world hunger. This Saturday, May 12, post offices and food banks across the nation are working together to collect food donations for the needy.

The National Association of Letter Carriers started the Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive in 1991, and it quickly rose to popularity with now having collected more than 1 billion pounds of food items.

Selma Area Food Bank executive director Jeff Harrison said local citizens can help with the mission without even leaving their homes.
“People are encouraged to put out a sturdy sack of food items out by the mailbox,” Harrison said.

Mail carriers will pick up the bags of canned goods and take them back to the post office.

Harrison said in the past, there have been so many donations that the food bank employees have had to meet mail carriers during their route to get the donations.

This year marks the 26th annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive, and postal carriers will run their normal routes, picking up donations as they’re dropping off mail.

Harrison said the rural areas are a big target for this food drive.
“The majority of our target audience is in theses rural areas, such as Dallas, Perry, Wilcox and Marengo [counties],” Harrison said. “It’s comprised of a lot of the elderly [that] are, for one reason or another, are limited in their access to come to town [and] limited in their access to transportation at times.”

Harrison said awareness and participation are the two main things needed to make this event a success as it once was in the past. He said anyone interested in participating should start preparing their donations Friday night and sit the bag of food they wish to donate by their mailbox early Saturday morning.

For more information on the Selma Area Food Bank or to donate to the cause, visit www.selmafoodbank.com.