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This year’s National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive in May was postponed due to the coronavirus but the need for food shelf resources continue. In response, the NALC has found a novel way around it.

The economic effects of the virus have increased the use of food shelves locally and around the country. With summer in full swing and donations dwindling, help in restocking food shelves is needed.

The NALC has developed a new plan to address the problem of food insecurity that affects one in eight Americans, including millions of children, elderly and military veterans.

Starting this week, Americans who normally leave food by their mailbox on the second Saturday in May can accomplish the same thing through an online donation food drive.

The process is simple: First, go to nalc.org/food and then select your state followed by the local food shelf, in this case the Austin Salvation Army is participating. Then, simply make your contribution.

All collections stay in the local community and have been set up to allow every dollar raised to go directly to purchasing food for the hungry.

This online donor drive will continue while the need continues and the circumstances prevent us from conducting our traditional annual food drive. The silver lining may be that instead of a one-day event, this effort will continue as needed. Food banks can purchase more food per dollar than a resident could buy and donate. We are accepting contributions via the nalc.org/ food website right now and we encourage our generous area residents to donate to this effort as they have to our traditional May food drive.

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is locally and nationally the largest single-day food collection. Last year, Austin and Albert Lea letter carriers collected 40,000 pounds of food and monetary donations to benefit local food shelves. Nationally, 70 million-plus pounds of food was received. After consulting with the 1,900 NALC branches in every corner of the country, we came up with a new approach to fill the food shelves.

This donor drive is a national effort and Americans in all areas are asked to contribute large or small monetary donations to the local food shelf of their choosing.