When she isn’t delivering mail, Anita Tillman volunteers in a food bank, where the Dearborn, MI, letter carrier sees firsthand the importance of feeding people in need.
Her favorite sight: “Seeing the children smile when they get cereal in their box of food.”
Last weekend, Tillman was one of countless Postal Service employees who collected donations during Stamp Out Hunger, the nation’s largest one-day food drive.
The National Association of Letter Carriers organizes the annual event, with assistance from USPS, the United Way, other unions and several businesses.
This year’s tally isn’t expected to be announced until later in the spring, but organizers hope to exceed last year’s total, when 44 million pounds of food was collected.
Like Tillman, Al Salvatore, a Savannah, GA, letter carrier, said participating in the drive allows Postal Service employees to help customers who really need it.
“Hunger doesn’t really have a face,” Salvatore told a local TV news crew. “You never know — it could be a senior citizen that’s on a fixed income; it could be a young family — and you don’t see it. They could look totally normal walking around, but they might be food deprived.”
