Opportunities From: Volunteer Wisconsin

The 34th Annual National Association of Letter Carriers' Food Drive will take place on Saturday, May 9, 2026. 

Every year, on the second Saturday in May, Letter Carriers across the nation join forces to meet this community need by collecting non-perishable food and hygiene items right from their customers' homes. 

We are in need of your help in this effort to collect items in your pantry and cupboards for our letter carriers to collect as they go along their route! 

This in-kind portion of our event is by far the most important and easiest to participate in as there would be no donations without the generosity of our community members in La Crosse and Onalaska!

Donations remain in the communities in which they are collected and benefit the Hunger Task Force and WAFER Food Pantry in La Crosse, and the Onalaska Food Basket in Onalaska. 

Just under 40,000 pounds were collected last year in participating 546 zip codes!

Unexpired non-perishable food items are appreciated as well as unopened hygiene items such as shampoos, toothpaste, soaps, mouth wash, feminine hygiene products and diapers. Please place items at your front door near your mailbox or outside of your mailbox in the morning of Saturday May 9th by 8:30am.  

While our food partners will accept any nonperishable food donation, glass jars can break and become hazardous for our volunteers in driving teams and collection site crew. Please avoid glass containers if possible.

For more information or questions on this need please contact Connor Glassen at Great Rivers United Way at (608) 796 - 1400 ext. 107 or via email at cglassen@gruw.org. 

The 34th Annual Letter Carriers' Food Drive is Saturday, May 9, 2026. Great Rivers United Way is recruiting collection site volunteers to unload, weigh, sort, and re-load donations into trucks for delivery to our food program partners. This work happens at the Post Office in Downtown La Crosse; however, there can be a situation where we would request a volunteer to meet a Letter Carrier in a location and load donations into their vehicle for transportation back to the Post Office. 

We are also currently working out whether or not we will have a southside drop off location for Letter Carriers. If this is the case, there would be further communication on where to report to. As of right now, we are operating all of this out of the Post Office on 425 State Street, La Crosse WI.

You can volunteer all day (from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) or for one of three shifts: mid morning – 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; afternoon – 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.; or early evening – 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Lunch will be provided from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. 

This event is rain or shine.

If you have questions regarding this volunteer opportunity, please contact Connor Glassen at (608) 796-1400, ext. 107, or cglassen@gruw.org.

The 34th Annual Letter Carriers' Food Drive is this Saturday, May 9, 2026. Great Rivers United Way is helping out by recruiting driving teams, consisting of a driver and at least one passenger each, who will use a personal vehicle to collect donations on an assigned route(s) ahead of local Letter Carriers in La Crosse and Onalaska.

Drivers and their passenger(s) will report to the La Crosse Post Office, (unless assigned to an Onalaska route) where they will receive materials and a route. Driving teams will follow mail routes, making two or more sweeps of that route to ensure as many donations as possible are picked up by volunteers, rather than Letter Carriers, who are also delivering mail this day. We estimate that driving teams will be done by 3:00 p.m. at the latest. This event is rain or shine.

This is a family-friendly volunteer opportunity – the more helping hands, the better!

Each driver who registers is required to provide at least one passenger. To sign your team up:

Click "Respond as Team." In the pop up window, click "Create New Team." Enter a Team Name. Click the "Add Me" button to add yourself. Click the "Add Volunteer" button for each passenger working out of your vehicle. Click "Finish."

If you have questions regarding this volunteer opportunity, please contact Connor Glassen at (608) 796-1400, ext. 107, or cglassen@gruw.org.