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Food Drive’s ‘Family Circus’ art revealed

Food Drive’s ‘Family Circus’ art revealed

Enthusiasm for the 25th anniversary Letter Carriers’ “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive is already running high—even with the nation’s largest one-day food-collection event still months away, on Saturday, May 13.

Scores of NALC branches have already signed on to take part in this year’s drive. Branches that haven’t signed up yet should do so now. Getting registered now can only help things run more smoothly as Food Drive Day approaches. And signing up couldn’t be easier, thanks to the NALC website’s new “Members Only” portal.

Branch presidents can simply log into the portal here to register their branches and order materials. (Note: If you are unable to log in, contact the NALC Membership Department at 202-393-4695 for help.)

Partnering with NALC on this year’s Food Drive are the U.S. Postal Service, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), Valpak, the AFL-CIO, United Way Worldwide, AARP Foundation and the direct-mail marketing company Valassis.

Postmaster General Megan Brennan wrote a letter to President Rolando in January, affirming USPS’ full support of the silver-anniversary food drive.

“All postal employees are encouraged to support the Food Drive by collecting donations, delivering postcards and promotional bags, and doing everything we can to make the 25th anniversary a huge success,” Brennan wrote.

Last year, active and retired letter carriers, with help from countless thousands of volunteers, collected and processed 80.1 million pounds of food, bringing our 24-year grand total to 1.5 billion pounds.

Thanks to NALC’s partnerships with UFCW and with Valpak—the direct marketing company behind those familiar coupon-stuffed blue envelopes—every postal customer will receive a reminder postcard in the mail a few days before Saturday, May 13.

Registering now helps organizers figure out who needs postcards and how many they need, so it’s crucial that branches sign up as soon as possible to help us start mapping out a plan to ship out the pallets of postcards.

New Food Drive art revealed

Thanks to a close relationship between cartoonist Bil Keane and his letter carrier, Keane’s popular “Family Circus” comic strip had been associated with local letter carrier food drives even before the Stamp Out Hunger drive went national in 1992.

Since Bil died in 2011, his son Jeff has followed in his father’s footsteps, creating and donating special artwork to help spread word about the annual event. This year’s drawing no doubt will find its way onto any number of promotional items such as posters, T-shirts and yard signs, not to mention paper and plastic Food Drive bags.

Print-worthy versions of the artwork can be found here in the “Artwork and Logos” section of the Food Drive Tool Kit.

Many branches work out partnerships to procure specially branded bags. Local businesses—from grocery stores to car dealerships to banks—benefit from the positive exposure they get by associating with our national food drive, and many times are happy to chip in toward the cost of bag production.

Working with International Paper, and its workforce represented by the United Steelworkers, most branches that need branded Food Drive paper bags can be accommodated. But note that bag production takes time, so waiting until the last minute to place a bag order might result in your missing out on getting bags—which would surely mean that you collect less food for customers in need in your community.

Of course, all food-filled bags are accepted. Paper grocery bags are large and hold a lot of food, while plastic bags are weather-proof and strong. All bags are recyclable, but food drive coordinators need to be aware of municipalities’ rules regarding the use of plastic versus paper bags.

Stay on top of the latest food drive news at nalc.org/food, and follow the Food Drive on Facebook at facebook.com/StampOutHunger and on Twitter at @StampOutHunger.