The return of retired mail carrier Don Young as volunteer local leader for the National Association of Letter Carriers food drive appears to have paid off.
According to James Fitzgerald, operations manager at the Clark County Food Bank, the final results for this year’s food drive, held May 9, show a marked improvement over the last few years of dropping totals. Young, who retired in 2009, decided to step back into the effort this year.
The grand total donated by Clark County residents during this year’s drive is 137,957 pounds of food, Fitzgerald said. That includes 119,082 pounds that came in to Vancouver’s two post offices — and from there went to the Clark County Food Bank for redistribution — plus 16,681 pounds that went directly to smaller local food pantries. Another 2,194 pounds “trickled in” after the day of the drive, Fitzgerald said.
The final total of nearly 138,000 pounds is well over 30,000 pounds more than the previous year’s “surprisingly low” total, Fitzgerald said.
