Donate soon: there’s no reason not to

Tomorrow, Saturday the 14th, marks the start and finish of Oregon’s largest annual, single-day food drive.

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has been going on for 24 years now, and since The Advocate is published the day before the drive this year, we couldn’t think of a better time to raise awareness.

Last year, 1.1 million pounds of food were collected. This year’s goal is 1.3 million pounds.

Stamp Out Hunger is run in collaboration with the National Association of Letter Carriers, so all you have to do to donate is leave a bag of food by your mailbox Saturday morning.

We know you have a can of pinto beans in the back of your cabinet. When was the last time you ate pinto beans? For most of our staff members, the answer isn’t in recent memory.

Donating to this drive requires so little effort. Just take that lonely can of pinto beans, and set it by the curb when you take your mail out. You already have the beans, and you were already going to the curb. The opportunity cost of feeding a hungry person here is literally just the time it would take to reach into the back of your cabinet.

As of 2015 Oregon has been number three in the nation in growth of food insecurity.

The program is timed right before the end of the school year, since summer means no food, via school programs, for a lot of children. Give a hungry child your pinto beans. We’re not saying you’re a bad person if you don’t, but on the same note we’ve never heard of Hitler donating to any food banks.

For more information see www.oregonfoodbank.org, the food bank that will distribute the collected food.