Mail carriers to collect food donations

Carson City mail carriers will be picking up more than just mail Saturday.

Carriers are urging residents in Carson City to leave bags of non-perishable food items with their mail. Last year the carriers picked up 33,000 pounds of food.

"I think there's a lot of personal satisfaction in helping the public and the needy," carrier Gregg Swift said Wednesday. "It is a nationwide program. We do it because we know it's a great program."

Two of the largest beneficiaries of the food drive in Carson City are Friends In Service Helping and Advocates to End Domestic Violence.

"They both make arrangements to pick up the goods to take to their own food banks," Swift said. "They make arrangements with each other to divvy it up."

This is the 11th year the mail carriers have collected food in May.

"Nationwide 62 million pounds of food were collected in 2002," Swift said.

Friends In Service Helping executive director Monte Fast said the mail carriers are one of the primary sources for the food bank over the course of the year.

"This is about 30 percent of our food-handling ability in the course of the year," he said," he said. "Half of our food comes from the postal workers and the supermarkets and the other half comes from school kids. They are very important."

Lisa Lee, director of Advocates to End Domestic Violence, said the group uses food obtained by the mail carriers to get through the summer.

"The postal carriers have been very, very kind to us," she said. "This year we have a young man who is doing his Eagle Scout project by organizing the troop to move the food. With the Boy Scouts helping us it will make it a really huge day."

Residents with a cluster box may place their donation under the box. There is a designated location in the lobby of both the Roop Street and Highway 50 East post offices for those who wish to donate there.