SAN FRANCISCO – Nationally, U.S. Postal Service letter carriers collected 72.5 million pounds of food on May 10 – 391,136 pounds in the San Francisco Postal District alone.

The San Francisco District stretches from Smith River on the Oregon border down the US101 corridor to Sunnyvale on the Peninsula.

Donations were received from thousands of communities throughout America for the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

This represents the 11th consecutive year the event has surpassed 70 million pounds and adds to the more than one billion pounds of food collected since the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive began in 1993.

Stamp Out Hunger, the nation’s largest single-day food drive, was launched in 1993 by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and is supported by the Postal Service.

Canned and nonperishable items are collected by 230,000 letter carriers and other postal employees in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

About 50 million Americans – including 16 million children – lack sufficient food, according to Feeding America, a partner in the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive and the nation’s leading domestic hunger relief charity.

With most school lunch programs suspended during summer months, millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.

This year’s effort generated an outpouring of appreciation and gratitude from Feeding America-affiliated food banks across the country, helping illustrate the impact the food drive has had in local communities for more than two decades.

In addition to the Postal Service, NALC and Feeding America, other Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive national partners include: AARP, Campbell Soup Company, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, United Way Worldwide, the AFL-CIO, Valassis, and Uncle Bob’s Self Storage.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.