Valdosta’s Second Harvest food bank looking to ‘Stamp Out Hunger’

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - Before you toss out those extra cans of peas or boxes of instant rice, consider donating them to Second Harvest of South Georgia. They especially need donations since food prices have gone up.

For the past three decades, the National Association of Letter Carriers has hosted the “Stamp Out Hunger” event. It’s a campaign that helps out millions of people in all 50 states.

“People think that the greatest amount of need is at the holidays, but it’s not. It’s summertime when families are having to stretch their budgets that much further because children don’t have access to school meals anymore,” Eliza McCall, chief programming officer for Second Harvest of South Georgia, said.

Second Harvest is hoping this event stocks their shelves and helps them meet that summertime demand.

“People can call when they need food and we will donate it to them. But when we come out here now, there’s not as nearly as much products that we used to be able to deliver to people,” Mary Cooper, a volunteer, said. ”Please donate, stores, even farms, so that we can help our community.”

The food bank says that during the 2022 event, they collected nearly 70,000 pounds of non-perishable foods. Something they say they need help from the community to do again.

“Right now, donations, whether they’re food or funds, are much lower because of economic uncertainty, food prices and fuel prices. But the need has not gone down. So, we really need the community to put forth a strong effort,” McCall said.

If you would like to donate to the nation’s largest one-day food drive, all you have to do is gather the items you’d like to donate and sit them out by your mailbox for your letter carrier to pick up on Saturday, May 13. For more information on the nationwide event, click here.

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