(Atlantic, Iowa) – This weekend will mark the 30th annual National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive in Iowa. Mark McNees is a supervisor with the Atlantic Post Office. He say non-perishable goods collected Saturday will benefit the Atlantic Food Pantry. It’s especially important because of the effect COVID had on collection efforts the past two-years. He says in the past the community was always supportive of the food drive.

Bags of food may be placed beside your mailbox — either by the house or at the curb on Saturday morning. McNees says this year, their focus is not so much on getting as many non-perishable goods they can gather, it’s about how much money they can get, in order to secure a grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA). The Pantry needs $25,000 to qualify for the federal COVID-19 dollars.

Mark says if you wish to donate cash, please hand it to the carrier directly, or bring it down to the Post Office, which will be open on Saturday. For every $1 raised by the pantry, an additional $4 becomes available from the grant for food purchases by the pantry.

Since 2019, the local number of families served annually, in Atlantic, has tripled and the cost has increased by an even larger amount. The Atlantic Food Pantry has been serving the community since 1982. Donations to the Food Pantry are tax deductible. During its previous 29 years, the USPS food drive has brought in more than one-point-eight billion pounds of food nationwide.