5.6.2026 Stamp Out Hunger at Main Post Office

So, um, obviously we're at the main post office in the city of Fall River for our traditional food drive. The postal carriers do a great job every year house to house picking up bags of food that we use in our food pantries across the city and it really is a great support. For that reason, we divi um developed a proclamation that we give every year and we want to acknowledge their great work

and I'll read it. Whereas the National Association of Letter Carriers will sponsor a nationwide food drive on May 9th. And whereas the NALC program started in 1991 and has grown into the largest one-day food collection program in the nation. And whereas in 2025 over 46,000 pounds of food in Far and Somerset were collected. And whereas the fara branch 51 letter carriers uh Paul Nahar represents them has worked over

the years to provide the services needed to the community helping to feed those in need. And whereas the city of Fall River is proud to recognize the significant and important contributions of the NALC branch 51 to this community.

Therefore, I, Paul Coogan, mayor of the city of Fall River, do hereby proclaim Saturday, May 9th, as letter carriers food drive day and encourage all citizens of the community to participate in this very important endeavor. Again, uh I'm tight for time today, but this is something that goes on every year in the city of Fall River and it's very, very important. These guys go out of their

way to support our programs. And um to that end, I really want to congratulate both the US Postal Service and specifically branch 51 of our letter carriers. Congratulations. Thank you very much.

Would you like to go next?

Okay, it's up to you. Okay.

Well, good morning everyone and thank you for joining us to recognize the powerful collaboration between the National Association of Letter Carriers, Stampout Hunger Food Drive, and all of our sponsors and our guests. It is a wonderful collaboration. Um, my name is Dorothy Mahoneyi Pacico and I am the not so new anymore time does fly community impact coordinator for the United Way of

Greater Fall River. Our team has been eagerly awaiting this coming Saturday, May 9th. We've been checking in with family and friends and neighbors all across the greater Fall River area, Fall River, Somerset, and Westport to see if they've received their green bag in the mail. It's a very big deal to get that green bag and that postcard um and making sure that all those who are receiving them hold on to them for this

upcoming Saturday, May 9th. For almost 80 years, the United Way has partnered with local communities to co-create solutions to people's most pressing challenges. And as we know, food is a most pressing challenge for so many in our area, in our community, and all throughout.

We take a comprehensive approach to listening and responding to local needs at the United Way of Greater Fall River.

Food security is one of those needs with one in two households in Bristol County having reported facing food insecurity during the 2024 2025 year along with advancing community resilience, health, youth opportunity, and financial security. United Way is promoted to promoting food security.

That is where our pillar community resiliency comes in. We're proud to support the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive in pursuit of the mission. The Stampout Hunger Food Drive is a testament to the fact that we can always make a bigger impact together than alone. Evidenced this year by the addition of Westport to our collection route. We were super excited to be able

to add Westport to the collection route.

It was made possible by the generosity of our sponsors, many of whom are with us today. And we're happy to announce that this year when you receive, if you haven't already, your green bag, you will see that Beos Bank has been added to one of the sponsors on our bag. They've joined the team for our stamp out hunger group.

The other sponsors along with Bay Coast are Bank Five, Blount Fine Foods, and St. An's Hospital, Brown University Health. Their collective commitment to this cause makes participation in stamp out hunger more accessible to individuals in our community, strengthening the food collection effort, and directly impacting our ability to create healthier and more resilient communities.

We also want to thank our letter carriers not only for the critical role they play in ensuring the stamp out hunger food drive is a success but also for the connection and support that they provide day in and day out to the members of our community. I know from a personal note, our letter carrier is a part of our community and we appreciate his muscles on May 9th carrying all of

the food that comes in him and all those who work so hard each and every day.

Their work is a witness to the realities of our hunger and hardships that many of the neighbors face. Their leadership in Stamp Out Hunger truly demonstrates their support for our mission in creating a thriving community for all.

So, here's your call to action. We invite every household to join us in filling one of the 55,000 biodegradable bags that were received in the mail in Westport, Fall River, and Somerset.

You received a bag and a postcard. And we encourage you to fill these bags.

Fill them to the brim. Use other bags.

make sure we are filling as much as we can with non-p perishables and shelf stable food items so that on May 9th our local letter carriers can collect the bags that you leave by your door or by your mailbox and ensure that we have plenty of food to distribute to the area food pantries where they'll go directly to those in need. The stamp out hunger bags are more than a convenient way for

people to donate food. They're a symbol.

Each and every year since the green bags have started, we know that that green bag is directly correlated to making sure that everyone's bellies are fed and we make sure that the families in our local community have what they need to thrive. So, we are thankful for the continued support of our sponsors, the dedication of the hard work of our letter carriers, and we want to be sure to remind everyone that anyone and

everyone can participate in the work that we are doing to address food insecurity.

I want to call up Paul Nar, who's really the mastermind behind this, to say a few words before our sponsors. call before you talk, which we are very excited. As the man of the hour, we want to hear from you. We did start a few minutes early to help accommodate for Mayor Coogan. He had a 9:00 meeting and so we do have a couple more guests that have joined us in the meantime and want to

give a couple more. I've gotten a couple messages. I'm on my way.

um to come here before Paul who really has lifted this program over the last 11 years u which has been absolutely incredible. Um and last year we recognized you as one of our Live United award recipients which was wonderful to have you there. Um but just by way of introduction I know we've had um a few people come in. Um, we have Ken Lec here from the Veterans Association of Bristol

County. They are a great partner with us. They focus on food insecurity as well as wraparound services for the veterans community. We have Andrea from Bank Five here with us. Um, Bank Five has been, I think, a sponsor since the beginning of this process, which is amazing. They have done a ton in all areas of our community. Uh, Andrea Walker is here from Blout Fine Foods.

they stepped into doing this partnership with us. Totally made sense as a food manufacturer in our area um to have them come in. Um we have another Andre not I'm just getting um here with us, our executive director.

Um and Paul, I'll let you do uh the other introductions. I'm assuming you guys are all with the letter carriers.

Yes. Yes. This is our postmaster Jim Casey in the middle. This is our manager down here at the downtown office, Tammy Ingisol. And this is Kim De Santos, who used to be our postmaster, but now she's a food, so she's she's higher up servicing the whole area.

Yeah. Excuse me.

Thank you to everyone who's here helping to cover this from the media side. We really appreciate you guys being here.

So, with that being said, Paul, okay, tell us a little bit about what's going on.

Well, first of all, there's a lot of thank yous. Uh, and and and just saying thank you really is not even adequate for what these people do. The bag sponsors, we have found that it has doubled the um food that we bring in, which thrills us that we can pick up twice as much food as we used to pick up. um at the United Way who has been we

went I went there 11 years ago and just said, "Oh, do you think you can help us out? I have had to do nothing for the past 11 years. They arranged the uh they arranged this press conference for me.

They get the food drive sponsors. They get the bags printed. Uh they could not not make my life any easier than than what they do. It's so it's just an example of what these community services do and and how they help out and try to make make a difference in our community.

So I thank them. Um I need to thank the post office. This is not an easy thing.

Uh it takes up some of their space. It takes up some of their time. Uh but uh they're more than happy to let us do it.

Uh they know that um um they know we're out there every day. They know what we see. We tell them what we see all the time out there. Um and uh they know that the the community that we live in and they realize that um this puts a really positive we don't do it for that but it puts a really positive spin on what we do on a daily basis.

We're out there bringing you mail every day but uh they also know that this helps to paint the post office in a good light. I mean when we went through um co we were one of the regulars that you saw our routine did not change so they still saw us every single day. Um so we feel a part of the community and we're thrilled that that that we can do this. Um so I

urge everyone fill those bags and fill extra ones if you want. We will we will take care of them. And um unfortunately it looks like it's going to rain. that tends to affect our totals sometimes.

Um, but you can also if somebody doesn't have a covered porch or something like that, if they want to bring it to any post office, they can. We have a lot of places where they can they can leave it, but some people don't have a porch or something like that. They may not be able to put it out at their box because it's raining. Worst comes to worse, if they put it out Monday, we're going to

grab it Monday. Um, as you can see, we're already getting food early. So, even though the drive is Saturday, we already have people putting it out. So, feel free. we will get it in the next 10 days. It's it's not a problem. Sometimes we still get it Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday sometimes because they'll say, "Ah, the bag was on my counter. I forgot to do it." And stuff like that. So, um

once again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um we do have a couple of people here that um if if Ken would speak, um he's one of our food pantries here and he can tell you um more about what they do. What these people do is incredible work. Um, I've told the story that I, uh, a couple years ago, the Salvation Army, uh, because they're one of our one

of the people that gets from us. Um, I went over on the Sunday because this is always held on Mother's Day weekend. I went over there on the Sunday just to see, did they make out? Okay. There was a new major over there. Um, and I said, "Oh, how was everything?" And I could see all the buckets filled. Uh, they were all up against one wall there. And they were serving Mother's Day dinner.

and I don't have to take my mother to Salvation Army for dinner. But that's the type of things that these community organizations do. So that was just another reason to keep me involved, you know, when I see something like that.

Um, so with that, I'm going to let Ken talk on on his organization.

Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Uh, so thank you. Yeah, my name is Ken Lec. I am the executive director over at the uh Veterans Association of Bristol County uh here in the city. Um we're so fortunate, so grateful to have the community uh that we have here that supports us um on top of feels like the thousand other organizations in the city that are looking for help. So, um with this food,

we use this to help supplement our food pantry that we're already doing. Um, and just like everybody else, uh, the the numbers just continue to grow. Um, we are now doing, uh, we'll say between 4 and 500 food pantries a month. Um, so 4 to 500 veterans, their families are receiving a food pantry from us. And this helps supplement that because everybody's looking for food, you know.

So, um, this helps us tremendous. pull, but you know, um my drivers come down and sometimes we don't know what we're going to do with all the food. Uh so that's a good problem to have. So thank you. Um but yeah, that's that's really all I have. So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um and I'm just the fact that we have to have food for veterans. That's just a statement in itself right there that a veteran has to go to a food pantry.

That's a statement in itself. doesn't need to be said anything else about it. So, uh well, and with that, I'm gonna have someone from the post office. They're all dropping straws over there. Which one wants to talk? Uh but one of them will talk.

Okay. Uh this is Jim Casey, our postmaster here in For River.

So, hi everybody. I'm the postmaster here in Fall River. Um I take a lot lot of pride in what we do and this is such an important thing that we do. Um it's all about community service. um the veterans, how we pair. I'm a war veteran myself and uh I just want to say it's it's just such a great thing, you know.

So, um I I really commend the employees at the post office and the efforts that the carriers make day in and day out. Uh no matter what the weather is, they're always there. And I just feel like this is such such an important thing to do.

So, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you guys so very much. Um, before anyone goes anywhere, we need to get pictures. We want to say thank you again to all of our sponsors. Again, we have all of my bee businesses. We've got uh Brown University Health. We have Blanc Fine Foods, Bay Coast, and Bank Five. Right. It makes it very easy for me, right? We're all about simplicity in this process. If you could all also be

named Andrea, that would also Well, we're halfway there. We also want to thank our board of directors. You know, without them, without their guidance, we would not be able to do all of this great work within our community. So, thank you Michelle and Becca for being here um as board members. So, we'd love to get a photo of all of our sponsors and our board members uh with Paul and anyone from the team over here that

would like to We could probably fill in this area right about here. Does anyone have any questions?

Yeah. Can I just ask Paul a couple of questions?

Yes, absolutely.

Um, what's what's been the um if you can give us some trends about how much you've actually collected over the past three or four years? I know the need has always grown, but has the support also grown I guess in that time?

Uh, lot what you can see here is uh there's 32 buckets there. Um we picked up our highest year we picked up 2100 buckets. Uh 25 pounds per bucket roughly. Some of them are heavier. Uh um so um it averages around $45,000 in that range uh to 50,000. That's what it's been averaging. But we were down in the $25,000 range before we got the bags. So that that the the bags have made a big

difference. The bags have made a big difference. if you can just comment if you will about you know your fellow letter carriers and how much pride they bring to this every year in doing this on behalf of not only what work you do here but also helping the community for for some of them some of them tell me this is their best day of the year um uh we interact with our customers all

the time but we're always giving them something so the customers are actually kind of proud that they're giving us something too so it forces that relationship that you have with those customers. Um uh and it it it almost gives you a bond between them and because they're so excited when they see you coming that they can give you a bag to to bring in. So it's it just it it's

good for both sides. Um it's it's a lot of work that day. Um because like I said there there are roots they will um there's uh there's 16 there. Uh there are roots that will pick up they'll put 30 in their lovs. the trucks that you see us drive, you know, when the the trucks are buried sometimes when they come back here at the end of the night.

And I think Paul's being kind on a few things because um it it goes further than just the people that are working that day. You have no idea. And I can only speak for Fall River because I was the postmaster here for 4 years. So this is where I became involved in the bags.

Um and and I I no other no other place does it like like we do it here. And the people that are not working that day, they're here volunteering that day.

their kids, their families, their everyone is here volunteering. So, it's not just that's how invested they are in it. It's not just the people that are working that are picking up your mail.

It's the people that are off that are working the docks and getting to the food banks and helping unload. So, it goes further than just that. And that's their dedication in that.

I mean, Paul is so dedicated to this thing that is isn't today your day off?

It is my day off today. Yes.

But I'll be out there putting buckets out today. So if you do not have a bucket, it's your high-rise or your NDCBU, you will see one by the end of the day because actually we put out we put out roughly about 300 350 buckets at different locations because at highrises and stuff like that. So and we usually always fill those up and then we get the additional stuff from the residential areas.