Employees from the Roanoke and Woodland post offices participated in the U.S. Postal Service's annual Stamp Out Hunger Day food drive on Saturday and were overwhelmed by the response from postal customers, who left non-perishable food items beside their mailboxes for mail carriers to pick up during their mail delivery rounds. The two county post offices collected more than 1,800 pounds of food that was distributed to the Christian Service Center, Community Life Food Bank and Lighthouse Soup Kitchen.
This was the Roanoke Post Office's first year to participate, but the local employees plan to make this an annual event for the community. Since the program began in 1993 it has become the nation's largest single day food drive. This year the program was projected to surpass 1 billion pounds of food collected nationally since it began.
Local postal employees and food bank coordinators thank all who donated and made this project such a success.
Proudly displaying some of the food collected on postal routes Saturday on the loading dock of the Roanoke Post Office are (front row, from left) Ed Halsey, Carolyn Goode, Greg Benefield, (back row) Abbey Phipps of the Christian Service Center, Linda Hurst of Lighthouse Soup Kitchen, Jeannie Volpe of Community Life Food Bank, Greg Rampey, Shelia Holloway, Tonya Fuller, and Deannie Lambert. Roanoke food drive participants not pictured are Angel Hatcher, Deleatha Witteveen, Tina Lovelace, Karron Cantrell, Jasmine Lambert, Keith Mitchum and Postmaster Rick Cadle.
