WINCHESTER — It was a record year locally for the 25th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, with 50,376 pounds of food collected on Saturday in the Winchester area.
Jay Keffer, a retired letter carrier who coordinated the local effort, said about 200 volunteers helped collect bags of food donated by residents and businesses in the city of Winchester and counties of Frederick and Clarke.
“This helps out a lot of people,” Keffer said Tuesday. “It’s a big effort.”
The donated food will go to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank and food pantries at Hope Again, Victory Church, My Church, Highland Food Pantry and Christ Cares.
The local food drive is co-sponsored by Branch 694 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the U.S. Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Keffer said. There are about 85 carriers in the Winchester area.
“It’s strictly volunteer,” Keffer said.
Last year, 44,439 pounds of food was collected locally, which was the most ever collected until this year’s food drive.
Since 1993, the Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has collected 1.5 billion pounds of food, according to Keffer, who expressed his thanks to all of the people who donated food on Saturday for the effort.
“They took the time to bag it and put it out for us to collect,” Keffer said. “It’s the people who do it all.”
— Contact Cynthia Cather Burton at cburton@winchesterstar.com
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