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May 12, 2007

Area letter carriers pick up food donations

By Nammi Bhagvandoss

nbhagvandoss@joplinglobe.com

Representatives from nine food pantries were on hand Saturday to await a special delivery from area residents during the annual National Association of Letter Carriers National Food Drive.

Mail carriers were bringing donations of non-perishable food items they had collected on the routes to the post office at 101 N. Main St.

Tony Wills, a Joplin letter carrier and coordinator of the local food drive, said mail carriers on 48 city routes and 10 rural carriers were participating this year in the Branch 366 food drive.

Branch 366 includes letter carriers in Joplin, Webb City, Carterville, Carthage, Neosho, Nevada and El Dorado Springs, Wills said.

Carl Junction and Seneca rural letter carriers also volunteered to pick up food that residents left at their mail boxes for local food pantries.

“There are approximately 20 to 25 rural carriers participating on their own time,” Wills said. “We really appreciate it.”

Altogether, he said, there were around 120 area postal employees and 50 volunteers working to get the food to the food pantries.

The organizations that came to receive the donated food on Saturday were: City of Refuge, Lafayette House, Crosslines Churches of Joplin, Soul’s Harbor, St. Peter’s Outreach, Watered Gardens, Salvation Army of Joplin, We Care of the Four States and Cerebral Palsy of Tri-County.

About 14 students from College Heights Christian School’s National Junior Honor Society helped in unloading and loading donations for Crosslines, according to Rick Lairmore, the group’s faculty sponsor.

Pete Miller, 57, and Olen Reding, 88, were also helping to load food for Crosslines.

Miller said he shops for the Crosslines food pantry every two to three weeks and spends an estimated $800 to $1,200 in buying non-perishable food.

“This will benefit an awful lot of people,” he said of the letter carriers’ food drive.

Kathleen Newberry, director of St. Peter’s Outreach, said this is the third year the organization has accepted food from the national food drive.

“This is a big help,” Newberry said. “It keeps us going.”

Mike Davis, with Soul’s Harbor, said he was hoping to get three truckloads of food.

“It stocks up our food pantry and it goes for food boxes for the community,” Davis said. “We rely a lot on food drives like this to support our food pantry because the need within the community is so great.”

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