Saturday, May 9, is the Stamp Out Hunger Letter Carriers Food Drive to benefit Food For Lane County.
Residents can put bags of shelf-stable food items next to their mailboxes and letter carriers will collect them to go to Food for Lane County’s warehouse. This national food drive is a partnership between letter carriers and regional food banks that actually started decades ago in Eugene.
Dawn Marie Woodward with Food For Lane County said good foods to donate include tuna, peanut butter, and non-perishable staples. Basic cooking supplies are also helpful.
“We get a lot of beans and rice and different components. But what we don’t get a lot of is vegetable oil or olive oil, seasoning, salt, pepper,” she said.
Woodward said the number of people seeking food assistance has increased substantially in the last few years.
“Some of our pantries have reported that double the number of people are now coming,” she said. “Rent is high. Gas prices just seem to be going up and up and up. That causes grocery prices, because of transportation costs, to go up.”
Another event to benefit Food For Lane County on Saturday is the Plant Sale at their Youth Farm which is now on Seavy Loop near Mount Pisgah.