By CV Post staff
The final count from last week’s “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive indicates it was a record-setting year for food donations collected by mail carriers throughout the Chippewa Valley.
As they made their delivery rounds on May 9, mail carriers in a 14-county area collected more than 170,000 pounds of food left on the doorsteps of Chippewa Valley residents. That’s about 14,000 pounds more than was collected last year and the most in any single year in the drive’s 23-year history, according to James Peters, director of marketing for United Way of the Greater Chippewa Valley.
“This year we collected 63,723 pounds of food and $1,657 in the Eau Claire/Altoona area, 23,982 pounds and $260 in Chippewa Falls, and over 170,000 pounds in the Chippewa Valley,” said Tina Dunn, the “Stamp Out Hunger” Chippewa Valley coordinator.
Although food donations in Chippewa and Eau Claire counties were down slightly from last year, monetary donations in the two counties increased by nearly 50 percent. These dollars make a significant difference because food pantries have the ability to purchase up to $10 worth of food for every $1 they receive.
The overall success of the 2015 food drive resulted from a significant increase – about 14 percent more than last year – in food donations by residents in the Chippewa Valley’s smaller communities, Peters said.
United Way of the Greater Chippewa Valley assisted in the success of the “Stamp Out Hunger” effort by promoting the food drive, recruiting volunteers to help mail carriers collect donated items, and encouraging local companies to run workplace food drives during the week leading up to the event.
“We saw amazing participation from companies that support United Way. Thirty-five workplaces collected more than 3,500 pounds of donated food,” Peters said.
“This is yet another example of the community coming together – each giving a little time or food or money – to achieve tremendous results,” he added.
All donations collected during the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive have been distributed to food pantries in the areas where the food was collected.
Food collected in Chippewa Falls was taken to The Salvation Army Food Pantry.
In Eau Claire, collected food was taken to Feed My People Food Bank and St. Francis Food Pantry. Trinity Lutheran Food Pantry accepted only monetary donations because it has limited space to store donated food.
“Stamp Out Hunger” remains the largest single-day national food drive. It is held each year on the second Saturday in May, a time when food pantries typically find their inventories are low just before the increased summer demand.