The Fall River community gathered for a press event on May 7, 2024, to kick off the 10th annual National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Patty Armstrong, Resource Development Director with United Way of Greater Fall River, highlighted the drive's goal to combat food insecurity and support local food pantries. Residents in Fall River and Somerset were encouraged to fill yellow bags with non-perishable food items and leave them by their mailboxes on Saturday, May 11th, for letter carriers to collect. Mayor Paul Coogan presented a proclamation, officially declaring Saturday, May 11th, as "Letter Carriers Food Drives Day" in Fall River. He acknowledged the significant contributions of NALC Branch 51, noting that in 2023, over 48,000 pounds of food were collected in Fall River and Somerset. The Mayor emphasized the importance of the drive as a partnership between postal carriers, food pantries, and the community to help those in need. The event also recognized generous sponsors, including Bank Five, Blount Fine Foods, and St. Anne's Hospital, for their support. A representative from the NALC detailed the three-phase effort, from national sponsorship for cards to local bag distribution by United Way, which has significantly increased donations. He explained that the drive is strategically held in May when food pantry donations typically decline, and the need is often higher due to children being out of school. Postmaster Saia, a Fall River resident, reiterated the Postal Service's commitment to the community and urged residents to participate, noting the collective effort has resulted in over 2 billion pounds of food collected nationally over 31 years. Ken from the Veterans Association of Bristol County was also recognized as a recipient of the collected food.
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we're super excited to kick off this year which I hear is our 10th year of doing this program with the national uh Association of letter carriers so I'm Patty Armstrong I'm the resource development director with United Way of Greater Fall River at United Way we're dedicated to improving the health education Financial stability and basic needs of our community by harnessing the caring power of
0:27individuals as a proud sponsor and supporter of the National Association of letter carriers annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive we commit to this Focus to raise awareness around food insecurity and encouraging donations to support local food pantries this Saturday May 11th residents in Fall River and Somerset communities can participate in the National Stamp Out Hunger food drive
0:53by filling the yellow bags delivered to their homes with non- perishable food items letter carrier throughout these communities will collect build bags and will redistribute the items to local food pantries with more than one in five adults identifying as food insecure we can see the need is great within our communities a warm meal provides the foundation to move successfully through
1:18your day and without this critical nourishment challenges are made more difficult as letter carriers travel through our communities daily they become familiar with the faces of those experiencing food and security they are the community ambassadors at the Forefront of making these connections and their dedication to service forms a natural bridge for supporting this cause by spearheading the Stamp Out Hunger
1:43food drive letter carriers and community members can work in tandem to fill food pantry shelves during a time when donations typically lack this event plays a critical role in ensuring that local food pantries stay stocked and remain viable resource for individual and families as a community collaborator we are excited to partner with local industry leaders to support great programs join me in thanking this year's
2:09generous sponsors Bank five woo Blount Fine Foods and St an's hospital for their partnership and advancing this cause your support strengthens the actions taken to overcome food scarcity seen within our neighborhoods and we ask ask that residents extend their supports and be United in purpose to end Hunger by leaving their donated items by their mailbox this Saturday through our combined efforts we can work to
2:42officially Stamp Out Hunger it is my pleasure to bring up Paul Mayor Paul cougan come on up Paul well this is a uh regular stop every every year for me on this food drive it's a it's a great partnership between the postal carriers the food pantries and helping people in the city of Fall River which is what this is all about and it's a great day uh to that end we have a proclamation which we're
3:15going to be given to Paul um acknowledging the work that this lovely organization does whereas the National Association of letter carriers will sponsor a nationwide food drive on May 11th and the NC program started in 1991 has grown into the largest one-day food collection in the entire nation and in 2023 for example over 48,000 pounds of food was was collected in the Fall River
3:46and Somerset communities and Fall River Branch 51 letter carriers have worked over the years to provide needed services to the Community Helping to feed those in need the city of fall is proud to recognize the significant and important contributions of NC Branch 51 that go on in this community therefore I Paul kougan Mayor of the city of Fall River do hereby Proclaim Saturday May 11th as letter
4:15carriers food drives day and I encourage all of our residents all of our citizens to participate in this very important food drive signed by me Paul Coogan acknowledged thank you so much congratulations
4:36congratulations and thanks for letting me come down and give this Proclamation I appreciate it I know we're going to have a great food drive thank you um thank you all for coming the uh this is basically a three-prong effort the the first part actually starts at the national level starts will start next week um they'll find sponsors for our cards and stuff like that they produce tens of millions of those um
5:04that's all we used to have but thanks to the United Way over the past 10 years we've been able to develop sponsors in order for us to deliver bags uh uh p uh Patty and Kim and her team start that back in January uh developing the sponsors or doing the artwork for our bags and everything uh which we found that the year that they started with us we almost doubled what we got in previous years so
5:30it makes a big big difference uh the uh uh and then the other thing that helps us in that first phase is the press that we get we deliver the bags we get as much information out there as we can so that all the customers in the area will know what we're doing we're out there we see the need and we just want to act as a conduit between the residents of for
5:55River and Somerset and the food pantries that we have in the city and in Somerset the second phase is actually when we're going to be is on our customers now U the first phase was all everything that you all do here the next phase is we rely on our customers uh we do the best we can to get all the word out it's it's pretty much out there now uh and now we
6:18rely on them uh I did a show and tell this morning inside just having the carriers talk it up and stuff like that as I said to them if each household just gave us this just this we would raise what we did last year if they gave us this we would double and if they gave us this and one of those it would be triple and I think the food pantries would be
6:42overwhelmed uh it would be a challenging day for us but um uh you'll be hearing from the veterans association they get about 200 of these buckets if I told them they were getting 600 of these buckets I think they would be thrilled but I will let him speak to that when he comes up uh so that last phase is as after we collect the food um our job is done uh we turn it over to these
7:07wonderful organizations in the city uh about 14 food pantries between here and Somerset that will do this work for the rest of the year until we get back to them if for somehow we can triple what we normally give to them I believe that food would last them right till Christmas a lot of it they would still have on their shelves right until Christmas so it's the easiest thing for
7:30anyone to do the weather is a little liffy right now uh but if you just put your food by your mailbox we will do the rest and if you triple it it'll be challenging for us but we'll get it done um so we urge everyone to participate there is no easier way for you to help your neighbors than to just go in your kitchen cabinet see what you're not using or go to the store and pick
7:55something up for us and put it at your mailbox we will do the rest um the food pantries do tell me that there's as always there's a reason that NE that need es and flows you all know what the price of food is now and a lot of the people that are going to food pantries are working people um but they just need to decide between paying an electric bill paying a rent bill that has gone
8:18way up putting gas in their car and it becomes difficult so uh uh a lot of them tell me that the need is up so please help us so that we can help those who we do this for a couple of weeks they do it all year round so we just want to help them out so to give them a boost we do it at this time of year because normally around Thanksgiving Christmas they get a
8:42lot of donations people think about it at that point when oh I I can do a Thanksgiving meal I can do a Christmas meal and some people can't so they get donations that time of year this time of year they don't and the kids are out of school a lot of children um rely on a lot of their food from school and the schools are not open at that point the city does do some programs
9:03where they have the free lunches and the parks and stuff like that um but this is a boost to the food pantries that uh they may need additional food so with that I'm going to and we could not do this it's you hear that it's like they let a carry us food drive but we could not do this without the PO without the post office they suppli us the buckets
9:22the food the time uh to get all this out um so with that I'm going to introduce our Postmaster Saia um and actually he started here when I was here he was a supervisor and then he moved into other places uh and then he's come back and he lives in for River and he's the first postmaster in my time that um uh has actually been from for River so not only
9:51are these his customers but they're also his neighbors uh when he was off doing his other details I would always make sure to go buy his Dr his and put a number of food dry bags in his in his in his mailbox so I found more bags in my mail yes yeah so um so with that uh I post Master well Paul thank you for that beautiful introduction I appreciate it
10:17um I just want to thank everybody for joining us today from uh various uh um parts of the the city and uh sponsors and uh the food banks here um a second Saturday of E each uh may represent an opportunity for the the letter carriers and the Postal Service to um to help to assist cross country the ones in needs the nalc branches along with the postal service and other crafts seize the
10:44moment to cement their ties to the community and uh over the past 31 years they have collected over two billion uh pounds of food Across the Nation but today we're not here talking about the nation we're talking about our community greater Fall River and um Somerset as well um I appreciate everybody's effort um we are committed as always uh from the letter carriers to other Craft um
11:11day in and day out to deliver your mail and also take this opportunity uh every second uh Saturday of May to assist the ones in need so um our work would not be um done without your um local uh businesses and U that help make this uh event successful so thank you for everything that you guys do as well and um I just want to urge everybody that can help uh to do the same thing that
11:37Paul talk about and make this as a successful event thank you
11:46everyone well thank you everyone for joining us this morning for this press conference we do want to recognize Ken from the veterans association of Bristol County for being here as one of the recipients of this food that is going to go to such great use um and we also want to again encourage everyone to participate this Saturday May 11th by filling a bag um thank you guys so much for being here
12:15today if we can get a picture you know you've been doing this for a number of years um how does you know the letter carries themselves you talked about doing a little like overview of what's going to happen what's their their thoughts and their reaction about doing this every year a lot of them this is actually their favorite day of the year it's work yeah you know a lot of them will pick up 20th
12:42what you see there there's uh 16 buckets there it depends on the route it varies by route but some of them will pick up 40 buckets during the day um so it can be a difficult day for them um but they actually enjoy it um it's a little bit of work delivering the bags as you can imagine putting a bag in every mailbox be a little difficult um but they really
13:01do enjoy it for a lot of them this is their favorite day