Reverse delivery: Letter carriers' food drive slated Saturday
The Lockport Post Office is prepared to deliver its part in the nationwide Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Saturday.
Postal customers in ZIP Code 14094 received their reminder in Wednesday's mail: Fill a bag with healthy, non-perishable food items and place it near your mailbox early Saturday. Your letter carrier will do the rest.
The annual food drive, undertaken by the National Association of Letter Carriers since 1993, directly aids food banks and food pantries throughout the country. According to rural letter carrier Dave McAninch, the longtime coordinator of the drive at the Lockport Post Office, its haul is delivered to the Salvation Army in Lockport, which distributes the food amongst six pantries in the Lockport area free of charge — unlike the regional food bank, which requires receiving pantries to pay for it.
Mayor John Lombardi III visited the post office Wednesday morning to read a proclamation citing the local drive's impact — more than 150,000 pounds of food collected over the past 31 years, a record amount collected last year — and encouraging all city residents to 'join in reaffirming the obligation and commitment to the annual one-day postal food drive.'
In Lockport, the 2024 drive raised a new record-setting haul: 9,625 pounds of food. Its previous annual high weight was about 7,900 pounds.
The Buffalo Post Office determined that Lockport was 'well above the average for Western New York last year…whereas other locals were down as much as 50 percent,' McAninch said. 'It's the generosity of Lockportonians, I guess.'
The letter carriers who pick up bags of food on their route every second Saturday in May are doing so as volunteers. According to Lockport Postmaster Seth Siemucha, carriers are not required to participate, since handling the donations requires extra time and labor on their routes.
City letter carrier Mitch Gehring, a 10-year participant in the drive, doesn't think of it as extra work. 'It's nice to help the community, they need it,' he said. 'If I wasn't scheduled to work, I would come in and help.'
This year's drive is the 16th Stamp Out Hunger campaign that Siemucha has been involved with as a carrier or a postmaster. In Lockport, he puts on what McAninch called a 'tailgate' for the volunteers, who include some carriers' family members, and aims to make it 'a big event.'
'I love this event,' Siemucha said. 'This is the greatest country in the world, nobody should go hungry. … The drive is all about community. We come together, work hand-in-hand — and it is amazing to see what we can do.'
McAninch said the Jeep Wrangler Club of WNY assists by having members pick up food from the carriers and transport it to the Salvation Army for sorting.
Volunteers from all walks are welcome to help with that sorting on Saturday, social ministries coordinator Chris Gresart said.
McAninch extended the invitation to high school students who need credit for community service hours. They can just show up at the Salvation Army, 50 Cottage St., between 11 a.m. and noon, he said; he has the form that they'll need to certify their hours.
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