SERVE needs volunteers to assist with letter carriers' drive

f Letter Carriers is holding its 20th Annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive on May 12, and locally, SERVE, Inc. is looking for volunteers to help with that effort.

Katie Davis, program assistant for SERVE's Callaway Action Network, said the organization is looking for "as many volunteers as possible" from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. to help handle the donations gathered by Callaway letter carriers.

"We're going to need help sorting the food, helping weigh it, sorting it out and putting it on the truck (to take to the SERVE food pantry), and driving around picking up food - the carriers don't always have room in their trucks," Davis said. "This is a family event - children are welcome."

Volunteers will meet at the dock behind the Fulton Post Office, located at 100 W. Fifth St.

In an announcement on the NALC website, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe expressed his support of the food drive.

"With most school lunch programs suspended during summer months, millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition," Donahoe said in the release. "I look forward to working with you to make a difference as our carriers, other postal employees and citizens in communities throughout our nation deliver for families in need through the food drive."

With the shelves of SERVE food pantry bare, Davis said the letter carriers' annual food drive could not come at a better time.

"We really don't have anything right now - this will be something that will really help," she said.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.