Stamping out hunger: Food drive returns to Shepherdstown, with U.S. Postal Service support

Jul 06, 2023

Shepherdstown residents Jennifer Boggess (left) and Rebecca Phipps help fill the envelopes being mailed out to local residents for the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive in Evolve on Saturday morning. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Back in 2019, Shepherdstown resident Pam Donato brought a nationwide campaign, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, to Jefferson County for the first time.

While the event proved successful among local residents, who received postcards informing them of the food drive, it was stymied from becoming an annual event, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

"When COVID started, we weren't sure how it was being spread, so contact, like a physical food drive, was impossible," Donato said.

Donato became familiar with the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive throughout her 33-year career as a United States Postal Service (USPS) letter carrier in Minneapolis, Minn. Her organization skills and enthusiasm for the event were clear to her supervisors, who ended up recommending her for a position in Washington, D.C., putting her in charge of coordinating the USPS-supported event.

"What it involved was getting printed postcards to 122 million address," Donato said, referring to the requirements for her job, to which she dedicated seven years before retirement. "It raises 60-70 million pounds of food every year, so it's a big deal!"

Shepherdstown residents (from left to right) Susan Kern, Steve Ayraud and Carrie Singer prepare envelopes for the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive mailing in Evolve on Saturday morning. Tabitha Johnston

The 32-year-old event traditionally features postcards being sent out to residents in a particular area, requesting for them to leave bags of in-date, nonperishable foods to be picked up by their letter carriers when the letter carriers are dropping off residents’ mail. The food is then divided between local food pantries. According to Donato, the only difference from that standard practice and her 2019 event, was that the donations were picked up by Shepherdstown Centennial Lion's Club members, who were asked to help with the event by following specific letter carriers on their routes.

"Normally, as the carrier picks up the food on the day, they pick it up and take it back to their office. But Shepherdstown does not have postal vehicles that are right-hand-side vehicles," Donato said. "We couldn't imagine making the mail carriers to stop and park at every house, because of it. That's why we had a separate vehicle following mail carriers to do the pick up for them."

When Donato was consulted by Shepherdstown Shares, regarding plans to bring back the food drive this month, she agreed with the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization's plans to make another major change to how the food drive was being run. Instead of postcards being mailed out to the county, envelopes with fundraiser information would be sent out to 25443 residents, requesting financial, rather than food, donations. According to Shepherdstown Shares treasurer Mark Kohut, this change was necessary, as the 2019 event was overly complicated and a number of donations included expired or opened food.

"I’m proud of what they’re doing," Donato said, referring to Shepherdstown Shares’ decision to bring back the food drive.

Over the weekend, Shepherdstown Shares members and local volunteers joined together in Evolve to prepare the letters, which were scheduled to be delivered by local USPS letter carriers throughout the coming week. According to Kohut, the donations from the food drive would be directed to the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry, allowing it to continue serving as many as 200 local residents in need on a regular basis.

"Here's what makes this food drive so great — the postal service pays the postage!" Kohut said, noting the food pantry costs a thousand dollars a week to run. "We hope that this will be our biggest fundraising drive ever, because of its connection with the national movement and because it gives local residents a couple of weeks to participate."

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is anticipated to become a recurring annual event, Kohut said. He also noted that nonperishable food donations may be accepted again in the future, if Shepherdstown Shares decides to rent a storage unit to house the food, until there's space for it in the food pantry.

Donations must be mailed by May 13, for inclusion in the food drive. To learn more, visit shepherdstownshares.org. #gallery-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */