On May 13, more than 130 Food Lifeline volunteers rolled up their sleeves and went to work at 14 post offices across the Greater Seattle area as part of Stamp Out Hunger, the largest one-day food drive in the nation held annually by The National Association of Letter Carriers.
Amassing more than 520 hours of service, the volunteers along with our staff members from across the organization spent the day unloading pantry-stable donations from letter carrier vehicles and loading them onto Food Lifeline trucks.
While donations continue to come in, as of May 16 Food Lifeline received 116,563 pounds of food from the food drive, providing the equivalent of more than 93,000 meals. The donations come at a critical time. With enhanced federal support ending and inflation remaining high, our inventory stores remain critically low. We quickly repack these donations to stock the shelves at food banks, shelters, and meal programs across Western Washington.
Instacart again served as the presenting sponsor of Food Lifeline’s 2023 Stamp Out Hunger event, providing financial support and a team of volunteers to help round up donations. Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, and they believe in using their technology and scale to increase food security among communities most in need.
They launched Instacart Health to help more people access the food they need to live empowered lives. They extended discount memberships for SNAP recipients and launched Fresh Funds as a new payment option. Their recently expanded Community Carts program allows customers to purchase and donate items to community food banks. Food Lifeline received over 38,000 items during the December 2022 launch of the program.
Food Lifeline would like to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who participated in this year’s Stamp Out Hunger. Together, we can end hunger.
