Letter Carriers' Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive this Saturday
Thursday, May 9th, 2019 -- 1:09 PM
-This Saturday is the Annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.I spoke with Neillsville Postmaster Lisa Schilling and she started our interview by explaining how people can donate.
“The first way is you can come right here to the Post Office and we have a buggy set up right in the lobby that anyone, even out-of-town or in-town, can even drop it here at our Post Office in Neillsville. We are open 7am-4:45pm that they could put that food in there at any of that time. The buggy is out there now. That’s the first way.”
“The second way would be right at your own mailbox. We sent out a postcard to remind everyone that it’s happening this Saturday, even though we have flyers around town and stuff like that. And it’s always, always, always, always, the 2nd weekend of May. So, even next year you can plan that it will be the 2nd weekend of May. So, they can leave that by the mailbox.”
“We do not have bags this year. Usually, we provide a bag with the postcard in the mailbox. Wisconsin could not find a sponsor to sponsor bags this year. So, no office in Wisconsin will be handing out bags this year, unfortunately. There are a lot of places that are moving away from plastic, so we don’t know if that had something to do with it. Even grocery stores are going back to paper. So, we don’t know if that’s what the reasoning is, but there will be no bags. However, please use one of your bags. Plastic is, obviously, the more preferred only because if it rains, your paper bag will break down and your plastic bag won’t. So, feel free to do that or even a box if you have a box that’s nice and sturdy.”
“The items that we, unfortunately, cannot take are alcohol, no glass and anything that would be perishable. So we wouldn’t want you to put out fruit or anything like that because that could be perishable in the time that it would be picked up or processed by somebody. It could have already rotted.”
“Check the dates if you can, of course. Nothing expired is what they would like to see and that’s just a quick, little thing you can check as it’s on every item. Other than that, almost everything else we would love to take. You can even do cleaning supplies. Or toiletries. Or deodorants. Or toothpaste. I mean any of that stuff is also used by the community.”
“Another place they can drop off is the IGA. They were going to put together a little area where the customer could shop and then just come out and leave their item right there in a box or in an area that they were going to set up for the food drive. So, that’s Hansen’s IGA. I think that’s very nice.”
She also explained that the food does stay local after it’s donated.
“The two places that get the donations here for Neillsville and for Granton, some comes here, otherwise they leave it over in the Granton Office because that office is tied to Neillsville Post Office too now. Here it’s the Clark County Area Food Pantry and then also the Clark County Department of Aging are my two places. And we split it up. We try to do it as equally as we can. Or even the two that run the two places, they talk to each other and see what they get rid of more of and they even do switches during the year or even during the day and figure out what they go through most. We’ve been doing it for so long that everyone is really good about donating and really good about volunteering their time. It’s just amazing how fortunate we are here in Neillsville that people donate and just give.”
Lisa said that Neillsville is always very generous when it comes to donations.
Riley: “There have been years that Neillsville has even been able to beat Marshfield when it comes to the amount of donations brought in, correct?”
Lisa: “That is correct! Pounds per people per size, we have beaten them several times, actually. They might have beaten us once. It is not very often. Last year we did 4,350 pounds. The year before, we did have a bad year. We did 3,554. That is the lowest year that we’ve had since I’ve been here. And I’ve been here 12 years. Our best year was 5,715 pounds and that was in 2010. That was our highest year. That was great. Otherwise, we are just so thankful for anything and everything that people can do. We are so happy that the town does get so involved. It really makes a difference in a lot of people’s lives. Even if it’s only one item or two items. It all adds up. All of it adds up. If you think you need to leave $20 worth of groceries out there, no! One or two cans of anything helps. It just helps. Anything and everything makes the difference.”
It’s not just Neillsville being generous in donating food, but time as well.
“A lot of times, the families of my employees that are off that day, they will volunteer to go around and pick up from the other carriers and bring it back. Or they’ll even volunteer to walk with my city carriers and pick up as they go along. So, it is very nice. And if people do want to volunteer, they can always reach out to either one of the pantries that we give the food too, because they need volunteers even there when we drop it off to break it down, sort it out, put it on the shelves. Because the process doesn’t end when we hand them the food. They still need to go through it, check it, then shelve it where they want it to go.”
“And anyone who volunteers, a bunch of the local businesses, which I’d like to thank also, Subway, Pizza Hut and Apple Valley, they also have donated food items for our volunteers to eat during the day when they’re working. So, that is really generous and really wonderful as well that local businesses get involved like that and donate to that too.”
Again, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is this Saturday, May 11th, and you can donate by leaving the food in your mailbox or by dropping it off at the post office.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.