Food Drive history

The NALC National Food
Drive is the outgrowth of a tradition of community service exhibited repeatedly
by members of the letter carriers union over the years. These carriers, who go
into neighborhoods in every town six days a week, have always been involved
when something needed to be done, whether it be collecting funds for a charity
like the Muscular Dystrophy Association, watching over the elderly through the
Carrier Alert program, assisting the American Red Cross during time of
disaster, or rescuing victims of fires, crime, and other mishaps.

For many years, a
number of branches had collected food for the needy as part of their community
service effort. Discussions were held by the NALC, U.S. Postal Service and
AFL-CIO Community Services Department to explore a coordinated effort. A pilot
drive was held in 10 cities in October 1991, and it proved so successful that
work began immediately on making it a nationwide effort.

Input from food banks
and pantries suggested that late spring would be the best time since by then
most food banks in the country start running out of donations received during
the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday periods.

A revamped drive was
organized for May 15, 1993—the second Saturday in May—with a goal of having at
least one NALC branch in each of the 50 states participating. The result was
astounding. More than 11 million pounds of food was collected—a one-day record
in the United States—involving more than 220 union branches.

From Alaska to Florida
and Maine to Hawaii, letter carriers did double duty—delivering mail and
picking up donations. It just grew and grew from that point.

2019’s figure brings
the total collected since NALC’s food drive began in 1993 to about 1.75 billion
pounds.