United Way and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) are teaming up once again for the 16th Annual NALC National Food Drive, which will take place on Saturday, May 10th. 

Area residents are encouraged to donate by leaving canned goods and non-perishables (no glass items) at their mailboxes, or by dropping them off at their local post offices. 

The drive, which covers more than 1,000 communities in all 50 states, is the largest one-day food drive in the nation, last year bringing in over 50,000 lbs. of food for local pantries and kitchens.  Donations are collected by letter carriers along their mail routes and then distributed to local programs, coordinated by the United Way’s Hunger Commission of Southeastern Massachusetts.

“We’re looking forward to partnering with the NALC again this year to organize the food drive,” said William Shell, Program Coordinator for the Hunger Commission.  “Thousands of local people are able to put food on their tables thanks to the donations that we receive from this initiative – it’s a simple way for everyone to join the fight against hunger.”

Over the past four years, the drive has collected more than 70 million pounds nationally.

For more information about the NALC National Food Drive, contact Bill Shell at 508-994-9625, ext. 14 or bshell@unitedwayofgnb.org.

United Way of Greater New Bedford is a non-profit organization that was established in 1953.  United Way enables every member of the community to play an active role in local philanthropy by bringing together volunteers, donors, community leaders, and corporate partners to provide quality programs and initiatives that achieve positive results.  Its service area has a population in excess of 200,000.

United Way of Greater New Bedford

United Way of Greater New Bedford works to bring together individuals, businesses and organizations to address our community’s most urgent needs.  We believe that to truly improve lives in our region, we must act collectively to impact the critical issues affecting our neighborhoods – building a better community for us all.

Through an annual campaign, we provide funding to more than 60 programs at local health and human service agencies serving residents of New Bedford, Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Freetown, Marion, Mattapoisett, Rochester and Wareham.  In addition, we administer a number of programs to address specific needs in our community.  Through the Hunger Commission of Southeastern Massachusetts we supply food to emergency soup kitchens and food pantries in Bristol County, while our Community Building Mini-Grants Program provides funding and skill-building opportunities to all-volunteer groups. In addition, our Volunteer Solutions database provides the only local online volunteer tool to match willing volunteers with nonprofits in need of support.

It takes our whole community working together to reach our goals.  Whether it requires fundraising, planning, or just getting people to work together, that’s what we do. 

We need your support!  Visit www.unitedwayofgnb.org to learn more about the different ways that you can help.

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