Beebe urges participation in annual letter carrier food drive

Gov. Mike Beebe speaks about the Stamp Out Hunger food drive Thursday while a supporter holds one of the paper bags that will be used to collect food items from homes across the state.
Gov. Mike Beebe speaks about the Stamp Out Hunger food drive Thursday while a supporter holds one of the paper bags that will be used to collect food items from homes across the state.

Gov. Mike Beebe on Thursday urged Arkansans to support the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, the annual effort by letter carriers to collect nonperishable food items.

The annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive is considered the largest single-day drive in the country.

Paper bags to put the food items in should be arriving in the mail Thursday and Friday to be filled and left for pickup Saturday, organizers said.

Beebe, who joined officials from the Arkansas Foodbank and the U.S. Postal Service, to encourage participation. Letter carriers last year in central Arkansas picked up 164,000 pounds of food.

"Arkansas has made amazing progress in the last several years thanks to a whole lot of people, but this is a continuation of that," Beebe said. "Now more than ever we need to be aware."

David Mason, a letter carrier in Little Rock who helps organize the effort locally, said the success of the program depends on people taking part and filling the bags with nonperishable items.

"We just make the request," he said. "You provide, and we deliver. That's what we do. We deliver the mail, and we'll deliver the food. We're going to feed America."

After being collected Saturday, the food will be sorted and sent to various food pantries and hunger-relief organizations across the state.

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