Young said he believes rain and hail that day could have discouraged some people from setting food out by their mailboxes. While the weather is hard to predict, Young is already brainstorming an improvement for next year’s food drive: Putting reminder postcards in Clark County post office boxes. The cards were put in mailboxes, but not P.O. boxes.
The 10,565 additional pounds collected this year were not evenly distributed among the different post offices.
The largest amount of food, 56,155 pounds, was collected by Vancouver’s main postal office. It was nearly 10,000 more pounds than the year before. Carriers in east Vancouver collected 47,772 pounds — a decrease from the 51,000 pounds collected last year.
La Center, which did not participate in 2016, collected 1,215 pounds. At 3,405 pounds, Ridgefield collected slightly less than last year. Camas residents donated 2,199 pounds of food and neighboring Washougal residents 4,666 pounds — a slight uptick for both small cities. Battle Ground collected 6,000 pounds, a significant increase from the 3,500 pounds collected in 2016. Woodland, on the other hand, saw donations drop this year to 1,892 pounds from 4,327 pounds last year.
Another residual 2,231 pounds of food were collected in Vancouver.
