The entire town of Daphne, Alabama answered the call to feed the hungry on last Saturday's annual Stamp Out Hunger day, and Daphne Post Office employees were there, as always, to pick up and deliver.
The Daphne Post Office services 28 rural routes and on this day collected about a wire's worth of donated food for each of them. "As you can see, the amount of people who donated in Daphne was phenomenal," said Daphne Postmaster Dennis Carter."We were nearly overwhelmed."
Most people don't realize how much extra work the food drive means for Postal staff. The added volume alone is difficult to contend with. "I started going out to carriers at 9:30 in the morning to rob them up (retrieve the donations that they had acquired) so that they could complete their routes," said Carter. "The green truck in the pictures is mine. In it, I picked up four loads from the carriers."
And then there is the matter of all of that lugging and lifting: load after load of canned food can make for a really heavy day.
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Daphne Rural Carriers Trent Henson and Greg Bartush prepare a load of donated food for delivery to the local food pantry. "We did not have time to take any posed shots. All were action shots because we were so busy with the carriers coming in to drop off loads and going back out." |
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Daphne RCA Lynnita Armstead and her Daphne co-workers are happy to work hard for a good cause. |
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Daphne Rural Carriers Trent Henson, Greg Bartush, and Kari Johnson form a food chain to help unload a carrier's vehicle. |
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Daphne Rural Carriers Kathy Fitzpatrick Susie Wagner, Crystal Godwin, and Traci Burroughs worked together to get the job done. Postmaster Carter: "Some of them stayed with me to help the food bank people load the truck. They remained long after their routes were done and their pay had stopped for the day." |
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Daphne Rural Carrier Charlotte Grimes with her arms full of food as she unloaded her delivery vehicle. "I am so proud of the way our carriers worked together to pull this off," said Carter. "It proved that we can do together what none of us can do alone." Postmarks thanks MPOO David Dilbeck for sharing the pictures of the food drive in Daphne and is especially grateful to Postmaster Dennis Carter for sending more pictures and a first-hand account of the day's success. |
