Leave your donation of canned goods and other non-perishable food items in a bag near your mailbox this Saturday, May 10, and your postal carrier will do the rest to help two agencies in Covington who make sure low-income families get enough to eat.
Postal carriers will pick up the food and deliver it to local nonprofits that provide food to people who desperately need it, including two that operate in Covington: Be Concerned and Action Ministries. Food collected in Covington will be split between the two nonprofits.
It’s an annual initiative, and one that Be Concerned Executive Director Andy Brunsman said comes at an important time.
“The timing is important because it comes just before the start of summer, which is typically a slow time for food-raising efforts,” said Brunsman. “This food enables us to reload our shelves at a crucial time, so it’s really important that it be successful.”
Each year, letter carriers across the country head out on their routes on the second Saturday in May to collect donations for the National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive – the largest such event in the United States. The NALC Branch 374 has participated in the Northern Kentucky food drive since it began 28 years ago.
Last year, its carriers brought in roughly 15,000 lbs. of food. In past years, though, the haul has been as much as 56,000 lbs.
“The drive, which is the nation’s largest and longest continuously held such event, is unique in that all people have to do to participate is leave nonperishable food at their mailbox, and carriers pick it up and deliver it to agencies like ours,” said Brunsman.”
In 2024, Be Concerned saw record numbers in the agency’s 38 years of assistance. Measuring impact through service counts, the nonprofit provided help 36,927 times, mostly in the form of food or vouchers for free merchandise from its Betty’s Treasures thrift store.
Branch 374 partners with a collaborative of Northern Kentucky food assistance organizations on the drive.
The other agencies who will benefit and distribute food outside Covington are Brighton Center and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newport, Pantry of Hope in Highland Heights, CARE Mission in Alexandria, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Northern Kentucky.
Since its beginning in 1993, the NALC Stamp Out Hunger event has collected roughly 1.9 million pounds of food nationwide for those in need.
City of Covington