Help Feed Hungry Local Families This Summer

The Good News

The rain was off and on during the National Association of Letter Carriers’ “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive on Saturday, May 12, but hundreds of volunteers from Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Weston, Westport and Wilton turned out to help sort the food donations that Person-to-Person received from Darien, Norwalk and Wilton.

We are grateful to all the volunteers – the Darien High School Freshman Baseball Team, the alumni of Boston College, Bucknell and Yale, the Wilton High School Class of 2021, the students from Norwalk High School and Lauralton Hall, the Pepperidge Farm employee service team and all the community volunteers who helped. Thank you to members of Darien’s Ivanhoe Masonic Lodge #107 for donating and preparing the hamburgers, hot dogs and other refreshments to keep the volunteers going. And a big shout out to the Letter Carriers who, over the day, got in and out of their trucks to pick up the donated food – many of them in plastic bags – left at mailboxes by generous donors.

The Bad News

Unfortunately, we did not receive as much donated food as we have in previous years. In fact, we received 10,000 pounds less, from what is the largest food drive P2P has each year which stocks our Food Pantries with three months of food for families.

The 10,000-pound shortfall is going to have a significant impact on P2P’s ability to provide groceries to families and children over the summer months – a time of year when demand is higher because parents are preparing meals for their children who receive free or reduced-price meals at school during the school year.

How You Can Help

If you have a bag from Saturday and were worried about putting it out in the rain, please drop it off at either 76 South Main Street in Norwalk or 1864 Post Road in Darien. If you don’t have a bag of food already purchased, please help P2P stock the food pantries by going to Palmer’s Market in Darien or the Stop & Shop stores in Darien, Norwalk or Wilton to fill up a bag and leave it in the bins provided. Please consider hosting a food drive at your office, house of worship or school or making a donation at the P2P website.

P2P appreciates all you do as a caring community to help people in need.