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Record donations benefit foodbank

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2:07 PM Wednesday, May 20, 2009

By Tiffany Y. Latta

Staff Writer

FAIRFIELD — Despite the economic downturn, the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive benefits a local foodbank received an all time record in donations this year.

Butler County residents donated 74,300 pounds of non-perishable food, the most in 15 years since the local members of the National Association of Letter Carriers participated.

“When you consider the high unemployment rate and the number of families struggling because of the current recession, the response to the letter carriers’ drive is truly amazing,” said Shared Harvest Executive Director Tina Osso. “What’s even more amazing is that two communities which have been hit hard by the recession — Middletown and Hamilton — both had record collections of food.”

The Stamp Out Hunger food drive is a combined effort of Branch 426 and Branch 43 of the NALC along with rural carriers. The food drive was conducted Saturday, May 9.

Letter carriers in Hamilton and neighboring townships collected a record 31,043 pounds, and additional donations are still coming in, foodbank officials said.

Middletown residents donated 21,748 pounds of food, its largest amount ever.

Monroe gave 4,919 pounds of food, an increase of 1,600 pounds from 2008. Fairfield area residents contributed 11,990 pounds of food, while Oxford provided 2,425 pounds and Trenton 2,147 pounds of food.

“We are grateful to the many people on our routes who respond generously every year to our plea to help families who are hurting in our communities, said Eric Yost, Butler County co-chair of the NALC food drive.

“Collecting all of that food is a lot of extra work ..., but the results make it all worthwhile.”

Shared Harvest officials said the food will be shared with its network of emergency food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters during the summer months.

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