Apopka Mail Carriers Make Special Delivery

Loaves and Fishes receives record amount of food

Apopka mail carriers picked up more than letters during their rounds last Saturday. Thousands of Apopkans put bags of non-perishable food by their mail boxes and participated in the annual effort to Stamp Out Hunger.

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive effort is the nation’s largest single-day drive. In 2015, more than 235,000 pounds of food were collected in Central Florida and distributed out to feeding partners over the course of a couple weeks. This helped kids, seniors, and families all over Central Florida.

The Apopka community mail carriers delivered 20,160 pounds of food to the Loaves and Fishes food bank in Apopka. This was an increase of almost 2,000 pounds over last year's total, 18,180 pounds.

According to Karen Valiente, Senior Director of Loaves and Fishes, more than 25 volunteers will be working this week to sort the food. "We called in our most experienced volunteers," said Karen. "That is the only way to get this much food sorted quickly. We hope to be done by Thursday."

As the following pictures show, the food collection process begins with Apopkans placing food on or near their mailboxes.

The mail carriers pick up the food and place it the back of their vehicles.

On Monday morning the food was delivered to Loaves & Fishes.

The volunteers then sort the food into boxes to be distributed to the food bank clients.