Special delivery food drive in Lakewood Ranch, Bradenton

Mike Peet, a letter carrier out of the Braden River branch of the United States Postal Service,  remembered turning a corner in Lakewood Ranch during the annual National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamp out Hunger” food drive.

He drove up to a neighborhood's central mailbox area. Only he couldn’t see the mailboxes.

“We came up to a mountain of food,” Peet said. “Lakewood Ranch comes up really big.”

The Lakewood Ranch area comes up so big that Peet takes the day off from his regular route to drive a rental truck used to pick up non-perishable food contributions the regular carriers can’t carry.

On Saturday, May 13, "Stamp out Hunger" marks its 25th anniversary and once again the East County area has an opportunity to make a huge difference in stamping out hunger in the county.

“I  volunteer every year because it makes you feel so good,” said Peet, who has collected food the past 13 years.

All the food collected will be donated to the St. Joseph's Church Food Panty. 

Barbara Miller, who has worked for 30 years as a carrier at the downtown Bradenton Post Office and has worked during the food drive since 2000, said five local postal service locations, including Lakewood Ranch and Braden River, accounted for 92,120 pounds of food in 2016. Miller said the drive announted for 80 million pounds of food nationwide in 2016. Over the previous 24 years, more than 1.5 billion pounds of food has been collected.

Patricia O'Driscoll, who is the co-director of the St. Joseph Food Pantry with her husband, Michael, said the food collected gets the pantry through the summer, a time when their donations increase as the snowbirds return home.

"We average 1,900 families a month who visit us," said O'Driscoll, who said families in need can collect food once a month. "This is non-denominational. If they need food, we give them food."

The O'Driscolls have run the pantry for five years and they have been amazed by the postal carriers' effort.

"It's amazing," Patricia O'Driscoll said. "They are such a wonderful group to work with. We are so appreciative.

"Sometimes, when you see the food, it takes your breath away."

Miller said picking up almost 100,000 pounds of food makes for a challenging day. "It makes for a longer, rougher day," she said. "But it leaves such a good feeling in your heart."

Carriers used to pick up as much food as they could carry, and would often pile the food on the curb when they couldn’t handle anymore, coming back to pick it up as soon as possible. To alleviate the load, drive organizers began renting trucks from Enterprise, and this year will have eight along the regular routes.

If those with a walking route are weighed down, they call the truck for help. When their vehicle gets full, again the rental trucks come and collect.

Now the rental trucks actually will go along the routes before the carriers arrive to pick up the food set out by the mailboxes.

Peet said all those who drive the rental trucks will be wearing an event tee-shirt and an identification badge. One year, Peet said thieves drove a truck around before the carries could arrive, stealing the food. Fortunately, the thieves’ pickup truck had a for-sale sign in the window with their phone number, so police easily traced the vehicle, arrested the thieves and got back all the food.

Most of the time, though, it is simply a feel-good day.

“We have a lot of people waiting for us,” Peet said. “They come out and greet us. They like to hand it over to the carrier themselves.”

Miller said if every address would donate one can of food, the haul would be amazing.

"We find that sometimes, the people who give you food need it more themselves,” she said.

Food drive organizers are slightly worried this year because a local grocery which always donated plastic collection bags in the past did not make the bags available this year. In the past, those bags were delivered to each address along with a postcard with information about the driver. This year, only the postcard came to the addresses, so the hope is people are still aware.

Miller said food banks and pantries often receive the majority of their donations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. By spring, many food banks are depleted.

Participating is simple. Just leave a non-parishable food donation in a bag by your mailbox on May 13. The letter carriers do the rest.

O'Driscoll also noted the church needs volunteers to help sort the food on Saturday afternoon. Anyone who would like to help can simply show up after 1 p.m. at the church, 2990 26th St. W., Bradenton.