Stamp Out Hunger & Ethics
Before I get into the meat and potatoes of my article, I would first like to “thank” the letter carriers for participating in this year’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. This was our 33rd annual food drive with our partner Island Harvest. Thank my committee of Mike Castellano from Levittown and Francis Toney from Merrick for their help with getting the food drive cards and bags out. The food drive cards were delivered to the wrong post office, and I had to track them down and get them shipped to the correct post office. Food drive bags were lost and shipped to New Jersey by accident and had to track them down and get them to the correct location. My committee was under the gun to get the cards and bags sorted out to send to the plant to get to all the post offices. That is the reason the cards and the bags were delayed and did not arrive at the local offices till Thursday, two days before the food drive. I must give credit where credit is due, if not for Keith Fiecto USPS and Ken Lee from USPS Transportation this year’s food drive would have been a total disaster.
As usual I received a few phone calls and messages about the carriers not picking up the food. For those carriers I hope that you are never food insecure or need food assistance because not to participate is a slap in the face to the Branch, Island Harvest and the people in our communities that depend on this food drive. It is a one-day event and if you cannot help people in need for one day, you are a selfish person and do not care for others. But that is your choice not mine! You must live with yourself. I would also like to “thank” Local 338 for donating 72,000 food drive bags. L.I. Federation of Labor and Local 138 for the Operating Engineers members volunteering to be forklift operators! As of the writing of this article we raised 335,000 pounds of food for the insecure here on Long Island!
Now for the ethics part: In early February 2025 Island Harvest requested a meeting with the NALC and the USPS. The USPS was a “no show.” March 2025 Island Harvest requested a meeting with the NALC and USPS, again the USPS was a “no show.” On April 23rd Island Harvest had a “Kick-Off Rally”, USPS “no show.” No meeting with the USPS.
The week of April 28th the ads in the newspaper and TV commercials are being advertised with the USPS logo alongside the NALC logo about Stamp Out Hunger. On April 30th, I received a phone call from the Long Island District telling me that Island Harvest cannot use the USPS logo! I was told by this person it is an ethics issue. If Island Harvest wants to use the USPS logo, they must get it approved at La Flaunt Plaza and pay a fee to do so. I was livid that they would mention ethics. They did this at the 11th hour the food drive is a week away! If they would have attended the meeting in February or March, we could have hammered this BS ethics thing out way in advance, but they chose not to show but now are shoving it down my throat. I notified Island Harvest of the situation to remove the USPS logo from everything they could, and they did. I just happened to be in DC at the end of that week for legislation and went to NALC Headquarters to straighten this ethics thing out and they did it for me but now I still don’t want their logo on anything! Next, we have the pressconference on May 9th, “NO SHOW USPS”! And to think at the National level the USPS is co-sponsor along with the NALC of Stamp Out Hunger! What does this tell you? This gives me an even more desire to push harder next year for Stamp Out Hunger!
