Tinley Park Mail Carriers Join TWC in Food Drive Effort

U.S. mail delivery trucks in Tinley Park will do double this duty Saturday, with carriers delivering the mail and picking up food donations destined for Together We Cope and other food pantries in the community.

Tinley Park mail carriers will join in the 20th anniversary Stamp Out Hunger Food drive May 12. The effort is sponsored each May by the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Tinley Park residents can leave bags or boxes of food by their mailboxes, and as carriers deliver mail Saturday they will pick up the food. A large portion of the food donations come to Together We Cope, a nonprofit agency based in Tinley Park that assists families in temporary crisis from 22 south suburban communities.

Carol Ettema, TWC food pantry director, said the agency has received thousands of pounds of food each year from this annual drive. “We especially need cereal, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, canned tuna, noodles,” Ettema said. “Those staples help families to put nutritious meals on the table during hard times.”

TWC’s food pantry currently provides groceries to more than 60 families per day, five days per week, as unemployment and under-employment figures remain stubbornly high in the region.