Postal carriers collect food for local pantries

Food is still trickling in to the Grand Haven post office after Saturday's nationwide food drive, and donations to Grand Haven-based letter carriers could be the second-highest since the drive began, according to local postal officials. Letter carriers and volunteers gathered an estimated 30,000 pounds of food for this year's Stamp Out Hunger food drive, said Ken Baumgarner, the drive coordinator for the U.S. Post Office in Grand Haven.

Jordan Travis

Grand Haven

May 16, 2011

Baumgarner, who is also the president of the Letter Carriers Union Grand Haven Branch, has coordinated the food drive locally every year for the drive’s 18-year history. He won’t know the exact number until later in the week, he said, but the amount was nearly double what letter carriers collected last year.

Around 75 percent of the bags letter carriers delivered were later picked up filled with food, Baumgarner said. The food was taken to The Salvation Army in Grand Haven and The People’s Center in Spring Lake, Baumgarner said.

Food gathered by Spring Lake postal workers was taken to Love INC, said Becky Umlind, a clerk at Spring Lake post office. Altogether, postal workers sent seven full-size pickup truck loads of food to the charity, she said, adding that donations seemed to be down from last year.

To read more of this story, see today’s print edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.