May 8 marked the annual National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive, commonly referred to as the Postal Food Drive, which connects donations from home mailboxes directly to food banks and shelters in more than 10,000 cities and towns across the country.

Although sponsored by the NALC and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, our Kingston letter carriers are contract employees and voluntarily contribute their own time, expense, and resources to participate in the effort, making our local event even more heartfelt.

The drive is also supported by America’s Second Harvest, the national food bank network, the United Way of America and its local United Ways, and many more regional sponsors to numerous to name here. Nearly one billion pounds of donations have been made since 1993.

Let’s collectively thank our local contract carriers for their hard work on this day, which for many is in addition to, not instead of, their regular job duties: Diane Detwiler, Samantha Diemert, Pat Kelly, Don Money, George Pons, David Niemy, Taylor Niemy, Clara Sheridan, Dave Sheridan, Mary Stueve, Jacqueline Stull, Matt Stull, and of course Postmaster Julia Rutzer. If you know them personally, give them a shout and thanks for their tremendous efforts to benefit the larger community.

We’d also like to extend thanks to all the households who donated, and all the volunteers and employees at ShareNet who gave up their Saturday to help: Judy Brown, Rick Healy, Julie Morrison, Susan Pritchard, and James Strickland, under the supervision of food bank manager Kathy Melseth. Not only is there a lot of extra work for the letter carriers that day, but also for folks onsite, who brought the food back from the post office, processed it, checked for expired goods, and then stocked it.

This year we had the assistance of seven members of Kitsap Youth in Action, a youth group that performs service projects throughout the county. It is a valuable program operating under Kitsap Community Resources and led by adult AmeriCorps members, in which youth volunteers assist with environmental (beautifying parks), educational (tutoring), or community events. If you know of a young person who may benefit from joining such a group, go to the Kitsap Community Resources website, www.kcr.org, then go to the Families and Children page and look in the right margin under Related Links. We’d like to especially thank team leaders Jared and Katie, who have helped us before and know how to get the best out of their crew.

The letter carriers, regular ShareNet volunteers, and Kitsap Youth in Action were able to create a production line for processing and preparing the food for distribution in coming weeks to clients in need. In real terms, this drive means the food bank is better stocked than usual for the weeks after the event.

Unfortunately, about 500 pounds of the food received was seriously out of date or not usable because it had been previously damaged. We encourage people to check their food carefully before donating, and to please not use their letter carriers to carry out the garbage.

Afghanistan aid

John and Cassandra Holdeman, who were long-term volunteers at ShareNet, have a daughter who is a nurse practitioner and Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy currently deployed in Afghanistan.

She is serving on a provincial reconstruction team as senior medical officer at the base clinic. In addition to handling medical support for service personnel including first response for wounded, the clinic provides support to the Afghan population nearby. The clinic helps with such crises as children’s diseases caused by unfit water.

The clinic needs the following for the children who seek help there: small stuffed animals and small car and truck toys; medium-sized backpacks; new children’s underwear and socks. Items should be plain (logo-free), and able to fit into the postal flat rate boxes, the largest of which is 12”x 12”x5”.

These items may be donated at the ShareNet thrift store, identified as such, and the Holdemans will pay for the shipping charges through mid-October 2010.