Letter Carriers Deliver 6-1/2 Tons of Food

On the second Saturday inMay, the parking lot of Norwood's First Baptist Parish Hall looked like a particularly busy branch of the Post Office.

The reason? The 26th annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers.

All afternoon, a seemingly endless parade of dozens of letter carriers pulled up at the doorway to deliver hundreds of bags, boxes, and tubs of food destined for hungry neighbors in Norwood and Westwood.Many of them sported handsome jackets with the NALC motto, “Proud to Deliver.” And deliver they did. Because when the bounty was added up the following day, the grand total came to 13, 144 pounds – over 6-1/2 tons!

“The people of Norwood and Westwood are always exceptionally generous,” said Jack Curran, Drive Coordinator and Vice President of Local 742, which includes carriers from both towns. “And all of us want to thank every single person on our routes who donated.

“Huge thanks also go to the carriers,” Claudia Mackey, Executive Director of the Norwood Food Pantry, added. “Each one who participated donated hours of his or her spare time to help in this terrific effort. As one of our teen volunteers put it, ‘Not all superheroes wear capes!’”

“That’s also how we feel about our pantry volunteers who helped tote all the bundles that drizzly day,” says Cynthia Zafft, Past President of the Norwood Pantry Board, who coordinated the pantry’s side of the massive undertaking.

“And we absolutely couldn’t have done it without all the sorters and packers – including many volunteers from Instron and FM Global – who showed up early Monday morning to organize and pack the cans, boxes, and bottles into 472 plastic tubs and banana boxes.”

Before the food was transported to the storage facilities, it was blessed by Interim Pastor Veronica Truell of the First Baptist Church. “And that blessing will be shared by hundreds of local families throughout the summer and into the fall,” concludes Mackey, “thanks to everyone in Norwood and Westwood who stepped up to help us make sure that all our neighbors have enough to eat.”