For Immediate Release
April 19, 2010

Nation’s largest one-day food drive May 8 will help feed local children
Everyone can donate food at their mailboxes for pick-up by local letter carriers

Food drive to benefit Tarrant Area Food Bank, North Texas Food Bank
and other local hunger-relief agencies

NOTE: In Tarrant County and the four surrounding counties of Denton, Johnson, Parker and Wise,
more than 230,000 school children qualify for free and reduced-cost meals (2009-2010 school year).

    FORT WORTH, TX (April 14, 2010) – As the school year ends, hunger becomes real for many of the 230,000 SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN who live in the greater metropolitan Fort Worth/Tarrant County area and often depend on school meals for their primary source of nutrition.

    To help feed these children and their younger siblings, residents can donate food from their mailboxes SATURDAY, MAY 8, 2010, for the 18th annual “STAMP OUT HUNGER!” food drive organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). Letter carriers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and across the nation will collect donations of nonperishable foods that are in non-breakable containers.

    MAIL CARRIERS in TARRANT, DENTON, JOHNSON and WISE COUNTIES will collect nonperishable food placed beside residential mailboxes FOR DONATION TO EITHER TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK or other local charities providing emergency food and meals programs. The WEEK OF THE DRIVE, letter carriers IN THE TARRANT COUNTY AREA will deliver "STAMP OUT HUNGER!" GROCERY BAGS donated by Kroger TO RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS to fill with food and place by their mail boxes on May 8.

    CHILDREN ARE MORE THAN ONE-THIRD (43%) OF INDIVIDUALS RECEIVING FOOD AID FROM from social service agencies served by TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK. EACH MONTH, Tarrant Area Food Bank’s network of 340 partner charities distributes emergency food to more than 40,000 HOUSEHOLDS and serves more than 525,000 MEALS AND SNACKS on agency sites.

    NONPERISHABLE FOODS MOST NEEDED TO FEED HUNGRY CHILDREN & FAMILIES:

    "In response to the increasing demand for food aid, Tarrant Area Food Bank now distributes 25 percent more food than in past years," said Bo Soderbergh, the Food Bank's executive director. "This means we are depending more than ever on community food drives like Stamp Out Hunger! to serve our partner food pantries, meal programs and other hunger-relief charities," he explained.

    In March 2010, for the first time ever, Tarrant Area Food Bank distributed 2 million pounds to its partner pantries, emergency shelters, after-school programs, senior centers, soup kitchens and other hunger-relief charities.

    MAJOR SUPPORTERS OF THE 18TH STAMP OUT HUNGER! FOOD DRIVE include

    Campbell Soup Company, U.S. Postal Service, Feeding America, Valpak, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, AFL-CIO Community Services Network and United Way Worldwide. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Kroger Food Stores and Campbell Soup are sponsoring the grocery bags being delivered to residences.

    LOCALLY, TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK RELIES ON THE VOLUNTEER SERVICES AND VEHICLES of Blakeman Transportation, Coors Distributing Co., Kroger and the U. S. Postal Service to help transport the donated food from the postal stations to the food bank’s warehouse in Fort Worth.

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For more information about the 18th Annual STAMP OUT HUNGER! Food Drive, visit www.nalc.org/commun/foodrive/index.html.

TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK provides donated food to hunger-relief charities in the 13 counties of Tarrant, Denton, Johnson, Parker, Wise, Cooke, Palo Pinto, Erath, Bosque, Hamilton, Hill, Hood and Somervell. For more information, visit www.tafb.org.

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