By Linda Cooper
Church volunteers, along with student volunteers from Millington Central High School and Ron McVay (third from left) from the Millington Post Office were among those who helped unload more than 7,000 pounds of food donated by generous postal customers throughout the city who participated in the 25th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, May 13.
Every second Saturday in May, letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America collect non-perishable food items donated to food pantries across the country by their postal customers, who participate in the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive — the largest one-day food drive in the nation. And, our letter carriers in Millington are no exception. Led by letter carriers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO), with help from rural letter carriers, other postal employees and other volunteers, the drive has delivered more than one billion pounds of food over the past 24 years. Recently, our local post office in Millington delivered 7,296 pounds of food to the emergency food pantry at Millington’s First United Methodist Church, located at 8029 Wilkinsville Road. It took the hard work of several church volunteers, as well as student volunteers from Millington Central High School and Ron McVay from the post office several hours to unload all of the items. In addition to items collected by the U.S. Postal Service from generous donors throughout our community, students and teachers from Millington Middle School also recently participated in a food drive and donated about 200 pounds of canned goods and other items to the pantry. And, each week the pantry receives meat and bakery items donated by the Millington Kroger store, ranging from around 50 pounds of meat to 40 pounds of bread and other items. Bread donations also come from the U.S. Navy’s commissary store at NSA Mid-South. “We are so grateful to the many generous people and businesses in our community who have donated and continue to support our food pantry ministry. It is a blessing to have so many in our community supporting this mission,” Rev. Ronnie Peck, pastor of Millington First United Methodist Church said. Started in the early 1980s, this ministry has grown as the need in our community has increased. Gail DeLancey, a church volunteer who oversees the pantry noted, “These donations represent the people of Millington taking care of the people of Millington.”
Persons needing assistance with food may contact the food pantry on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at 872-2771 to schedule an appointment. Find the pantry on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MillingtonTNFoodPantry/.
