Stamp Out Hunger 2026: A Quieter Year, A Clearer Need

On Saturday, May 9th, a group of our members headed out to the Spring & Bellflower post office to take part in Stamp Out Hunger, the largest single-day food drive in the nation, now in its 34th year and fast approaching 2 billion pounds of food collected since its nationwide launch in 1993.

Led by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) in partnership with USPS, the drive happens every second Saturday in May, deliberately timed to build up food supplies heading into summer, when donations typically fall off and children lose access to school lunch programs. Residents are asked to leave bags of nonperishable food by their mailboxes, which letter carriers then collect and deliver to local food banks. Our role was to receive those donations at the post office, box everything up, tape it, and stage it for transport to Food Finders.

Compared to last year, when the team worked in nearly 95-degree heat and was busy non-stop for the full two hours, this year was noticeably better organized and much more comfortable. That said, donations were down. The reason? Individual post offices fund the neighborhood postcards out of their own local budgets, and this year many simply couldn’t afford to send as many out. Much of Long Beach’s East Side received cards while other areas didn’t, meaning a lot of would-be donors never got the memo.

What struck us most, though, was a shift in how Food Finders is operating. Last year, food was being inspected closely for expiration dates. This year, they told us plainly: “We’re taking everything.” That change speaks volumes about the growing need in our community and honestly, it was a powerful reminder of exactly why we show up for events like this.

Looking ahead to next year, the board is already discussing ways to come better prepared, specifically by coordinating member and friend donations in advance, so we can contribute food of our own to the drive rather than simply sorting what comes in. It’s a small shift that could make a real difference.

If you’ve never volunteered for Stamp Out Hunger, we’d love to have you join us. It’s a meaningful morning, it’s more fun than you’d expect, and the need, as this year made clear, isn’t going away.