Amid a steady increase in families coming to the Blaine Food Bank due to the rising cost of living, Whatcom County’s second-busiest food bank is joining the nationwide Stamp Out Hunger campaign on Saturday, May 9.
Teaming up with U.S. Postal Service letter carriers — and a few other local organizations — the food bank is asking the Blaine community to leave nonperishable food items at their mailbox on the morning of May 9. The donations will be picked up by USPS letter carriers and eventually brought to the food bank.
Stamp Out Hunger is the largest one-day food drive in the country, and next weekend will be the first time in years that the Blaine Food Bank has participated, said Blaine Food Bank Director Lisa Dobbin.
“We have a fabulous community of very generous people,” Dobbin said. “If you put the easy way in front of them, they want to help and it couldn’t get easier than this.”
Mail carriers will pass out donation bags this week, and those bags can be filled with any unexpired, nonperishable food. There is an acute need for canned vegetables and protein, and especially pet food.
Dobbin said contributions taper off after the holiday season, making spring a slow time for donations. Donations spiked after the federal government shutdown in late 2025 resulted in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits being temporarily suspended, but Dobbin said they have since dwindled.
The food bank has extended its hours to accommodate an influx of people as grocery prices and the cost of other necessities rise, Dobbin said.
The food bank’s goal is to collect 10,000-12,000 pounds of food. That requires more cargo space than what the mail carriers can take, so the food bank is relying on a few reinforcements.
For starters, some mail carriers will be followed behind by their friends and family driving their own cars, picking up any donated food that can’t fit in the USPS vehicles, Dobbin said. North Whatcom Fire and Rescue will also run its own route throughout Blaine, filling up fire engines with donated food from houses along H Street, D Street, the Salishan neighborhood, among other areas.
Edge Logistics and Transport, a Blaine shipping company, is offering free warehouse space as the amount of food collected is expected to be more than the food bank can store. Volunteers from the Phillips 66 refinery in Ferndale will sort the donations.
The food bank, which serves about 800 families every month, is the most popular food bank in Whatcom County outside of Bellingham. Dobbin estimates the food bank feeds roughly 12,000 people a month.
“We’re excited to see what Blaine can do,” Dobbin said.
