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COLUMBIA - With demands reaching record levels, it's easy to see why the food bank needs all the groceries they can get.
Saturday they got some extra help from some boys in blue, but not who you would expect. The names and address on envelopes mean a lot more to Jeffrey Connell. He takes his delivery route step-by-step, door-to-door, house-to-house. "We're letter carriers... we're kind of like the eyes and the ears of the neighborhoods we serve,"said Connell, a letter carrier. Making sure the mail gets out is just part of the job. "Due to the economy there are certain families that have fed their families for years," said Connell. "We're seeing more and more people coming into food pantries who have never needed food assistance before," said Peggy Kirkpatrick of the Central Missouri Food Bank. The post office is collecting mail and food as part of Stamp Out Hunger, hoping to give that extra help to the increasing number in need. "A lot of the people are making large donations, the ones that are donating are putting cases of food out there," said Connell. At the end of the route volunteers sort food, pack it up,and ship it off to the food pantry and ultimately the pantry of someone who needs it. "It is a great privilege and a pleasure to work with the postal carriers, they give up an awful lot to do this for us," said Kirkpatrick. "It is going to take a lot of extra time; normally I could do this route in eight hours and today we're looking at 10 to 11 hours," said Connell. They don't get paid for the extra hours but for Connell those extra trips back to the truck to drop off food are worth it. "We see the families in need, we're actually in the neighborhoods everyday," said Connell. "It is just wonderful to see this community come together to try and help their neighbor in need," said Kirkpatrick. So far the food bank says they picked up more than 120,000 pounds of food. Letter carriers plan to pick up food on Monday. Saturday they used specific bags to collect the food, but you can leave any box or bag right by your mailbox and your letter carrier will make sure it gets to the food bank.
Reported by: Elizabeth Gelardi
Posted by: Beth Hoag
Edited by: Carly Henderson
Edited by: Ashton Goodell
Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 5:05 PM
Last Updated: Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 12:36 AM |
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