Las Vegas letter carriers gearing for charity drive

Saturday, May 2, 1998 | 8:55 a.m.

It's food-drive season for the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Julie Bryant, local letter carrier and food-drive organizer, is gearing up for May 9, when 100,000 letter carriers will collect nonperishable food items from residents in neighborhoods across the country.

Bryant said that 1,500 U.S. Postal Service branches in more than 10,000 cities and towns will be participating.

The food will go to charities and food banks to help those in need.

Last year, letter carriers in the local food drive collected 370,000 pounds of food. The drive was rated 20th in the country.

Bryant said this year they are hoping to reach a goal of 500,000 pounds.

"Every year we try to bring more people in and get more people involved. Every year the population grows, so do people in need," Bryant said.

Letter carriers are asking Las Vegas Valley residents to leave nonperishable food items such as tuna, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, beans and pasta in or around their mailboxes on May 9.

"Having letter carriers collect the food on their mail route is the easiest way for people to give," Bryant said. "All people have to do is put it by their mailboxes. Some apartment complexes collect the food in their club house."

Bryant said the food drive is so successful with people wanting to give, that they get food for two weeks after the drive because people either forgot or were out of town.

"The community is really supportive," she said. "We get kids all excited bringing out bags of food. Some residents carry out cases of food."

The annual food drive is co-sponsored locally by the United Way and the AFL-CIO.

After collecting the donations, the carriers haul the food back to their offices where the food is sorted by cans, boxes and bags, then loaded onto trucks heading to different charities.

"It's the greatest day to work," Bryant said. "All the postal carriers have big smiles on their faces. Everybody's working together and asking each other how much they got. Until you've done it, you just don't know how amazing it is."

Bryant, a 10-year Nevada resident and nine-year Postal Service employee, is in her third year as coordinator for the drive. Last year, Bryant received the Mike O'Callaghan Award for her services in the food drive. The teamwork award is presented by the state AFL-CIO and the United Way and is named for former Gov. Mike O'Callaghan, executive editor of the SUN.

Bryant says she can relate to people in need because she has been where she's had nothing and now wants to give back to the community.

"A lot of us had been there until we got a good union job," she said. "And as letter carriers, we see everything. I've delivered in areas where it's really rough, and you can tell that there are kids who don't get enough to eat."

Bryant's job as organizer involves gaining the support of local businesses. This year, Lucky, Smith's, Vons and Price Rite stores plan to hand out fliers the week of the drive along with providing food for cookouts for the volunteers on the day of the drive.

"This is an effort that the entire community gets involved in: the unions, the United Way, charitable organizations and citizens," she said. "The customers are as dedicated as the workers."

Local libraries are going to display fliers and posters and Signature Lincoln Mercury will be handing out fliers.

Garth Winkler of the United Way said that he offered a venture grant for smaller food shelters that would provide truck and storage space.

Jim Arnold from the Culinary Union sends out volunteers to help sort food and donates the use of its trucks for the day.

"It's a very positive program, and we're proud to be a part of it," Arnold said. "The food goes directly to the people who need it."

Bryant said that the food drive is held in the summer, a time when food shelves are at their lowest since most people give at Christmas and Thanksgiving. She added that in the summer most children are without school lunches.

The letter carriers' food drive began in October 1991, when the Postal Service held a 10-city pilot drive patterned after a successful drive in Phoenix.

More than 580,000 pounds of food were collected that day, which led to the nationwide food drive.

The first national food drive, which included every state, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, was held May 15, 1993. About 220 participating branches collected 12 million pounds of food.

In 1994, local United Ways added their sponsorship and 32 million pounds of food were collected.

In 1995 and 1996, 45 million pounds were collected. In 1997, a record collection of 72 million pounds was made. Campbell's Soup gave 20 million pounds of soup to one branch in Chicago and mailed out more than 90 million fliers to promote the event.

This year, Campbell's Soup will donate 10 million pounds of food nationwide to the food banks in participating cities. The company also plans to mail 100 million promotional postcards.

Local politicians, including Gov. Bob Miller, Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both D-Nev., have provided proclamations declaring the second Saturday in May as letter carrier food- drive day.

"Everybody thinks there's not a community here, but there really is," Bryant said. "There really is a lot of heart out there."