In their annual food drive Saturday, Seattle-area letter carriers collected hundreds of thousands of expired and undesirable foods donated by local households.
The food was brought to distribution centers, where it will be sorted and eventually delivered to people that are so hungry they will even happily eat French onion soup dated September 1998.
Common items picked up by the local postal drivers included canned cranberry sauce, kidney and garbanzo beans, and evaporated milk, most commonly having expired between 2003 and 2007. In a delightful coincidence, local hungry families reported that their favorite dinner includes these exact ingredients, and that they prefer that their canned goods be “well aged.”
Despite the slowing economy, local families were just as generous as ever, readily giving up cherished foodstuff heirlooms that they had been saving for five, ten, or even fifteen years. “It was hard to part with the ’94 canned pitted prunes,” said Bothell resident Avery Morgan, “but it’s for a good cause.”
“The kindness and charity of people in and around Seattle amazes me every year,” said Phil Stutz, a Newcastle letter carrier. “I’ve never seen so many cans of mushrooms in my entire life.”
A total of over eight tons of expired food was collected for the hungry this year, enough to feed nearly three dozen hungry families for at least six weeks.
I like the flavor of an old can. It provides the gormet touch to things such as Naley’s Valley Chili, Hunts tomatoe sauce for pasta and bulging cans of old Pink Salmon. I also gave some old quart jars of peaches that had turned an attractive brown since we canned them back in 1999 (a very good year). Only the best of the hungry of the Emerald City.