PORT ANGELES — Josie Gilbeck needed a forklift to unload the mountain of food collected by Port Angeles-area postal carriers in the Stamp Out Hunger campaign, and volunteer Cliff Vining is still sorting the food that postal carriers brought to the Sequim Food Bank.
“This is a big one,” said Gilbeck, executive director of the Port Angeles Food Bank, last week after the drive on May 9.
The 14,100 pounds collected from Joyce to the Sequim postal boundary smashed last year’s mark of 10,000 pounds.
It was the largest collection in five years.
Nina Fatherson, executive director of the Sequim Food Bank, said postal carriers collected 12,000 pounds during their drive May 16 — a week after Port Angeles and Forks drives.
She’s sure that it’s more than last year’s donations, although she doesn’t know the 2008 figure.
Vinning agreed. “It’s quite a bit more than last year. I’m still sorting,” he said last Wednesday, “and I will be for a while. It takes time to sort 6 tons.”
In Forks, the food drive brought in 890 pounds — 280 pounds less than last year.
“With the economy, I think that’s reasonable,” Forks postal worker Ann Klepps said.
Some West End carriers volunteered on their days off to collect a diverse supply, Klepps said.
The local effort was part of the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger campaign, which takes place at more than 1,100 branches. It has collected 909 million pounds of food over 17 years.
“It’s a big deal,” said Jeff Derau, the postal organizer for Port Angeles and its neighboring rural routes.
“It’s just not here but everywhere.”
Compassion
Both Gilbeck and Fatherson had thought a low-performing economy would depress donations. Instead, they saw an increase.
“With the bad economy, I did not expect it,” Fatherson said. “I think they know the economy is bad, and they wanted to help us out.”
Gilbeck said that she thought residents acted with compassion.
“I think all of us can kind of relate. We all know somebody who’s been laid off or who is having hard times,” she said, “and just by relating to the economy right now, everyone gave a little more.”
Both said that the large donation couldn’t have come at a better time.
“We don’t get donations after the holidays,” Gilbeck said.
“It really kind of tapers off, so this is a big one for us. This is the biggest one of the year, and if we do it right, we can make it last quite a while.”
If managed properly, the food bank will stretch the 7 tons of nonperishable food for about four months, Gilbeck said.
Sequim traditionally holds the drive a week later so it doesn’t coincide with of the Irrigation Festival.
“It’s just too much,” postal worker Lea Rickel said.
The Sequim postal carrier drive is the largest contributor to the Sequim Food Bank, and Rickel said people were dropping off food even before the drive began.
Demand remains high
Despite the success of this year’s food drive, both Gilbeck and Fatherson said that demand remains high.
In November, the Port Angeles Food Bank was serving from 250 to 300 families per week, Gilbeck said.
This month, it’s giving food to more than 500 families per week, she said.
“We always need donations,” said Gilbeck, who became executive director last month.
“It’s going to be turned around in the next four months, and these shelves are going to be bare again. We need to continue to keep getting donations in.”
Demand on the Sequim Food Bank also has risen, Fatherson said.
She was accustomted to the facility, which is open Mondays and Fridays, serving from 38 to 50 families per week.
Now the average is 50 weekly, she said, and the number has been as high as 77 in one week.
Variety of good
The nonperishable food postal carriers collected varied from canned goods to dry noodles to specialty products.
“I saw some smoked salmon in there that I wanted to take home,” Derau joked.
“We do vehicle checks with carriers coming back to make sure we don’t find wrappers and cracker crumbs.”
“They didn’t clean out the pantry and throw us the old stuff,” Gilbeck added.
“This is good stuff. There’s good, quality food here that’s fresh. It’s great.”
About 25 carriers and 10 volunteers helped out around Port Angeles.
One rural carrier had 958 pounds of food stacked window to window on Saturday. A carrier west of Port Angeles had the biggest load in the area at 1,228 pounds, Derau said.
“Some of those vehicles were so full we had to actually go out and meet them halfway through their route because they were bottoming out,” Gilbeck said.
In addition to the truckloads of food, the Port Angeles food drive also generated $307 in donations, Derau said.
He thanked the community for its generosity.
“The rural carriers, they do it for no pay,” Derau added.
“From the city side, we’re paid hourly. We’ve got trucks that can handle it a little better. But they all work hard, outside and inside. It’s a big thing.”
Derau also thanked management for working with the carriers.
“We don’t get overtime for this,” he said.
“This is not affecting what you pay for a stamp, and management goes out of their way to facilitate the letter carriers’ union, who started this.”
The goal for next year’s drive is 18,000 pounds, Derau said.
“We just pick up the food and get the word out,” he said.
“It’s amazing what this community does.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
