By: Charity Meier | Novi Note | Published May 7, 2026
NOVI — Metro Detroit letter carriers will once again be making strides to Stamp Out Hunger with the National Association of Letter Carriers’ food drive.
The annual campaign brings the carriers and the community they serve together to help neighbors in need.
Letter carriers from the Walled Lake post office, which serves Novi residents, will be collecting food and other nonperishable items to be given to Hospitality House in Walled Lake.
“Clients of Hospitality House, our local partner, their need never came down after COVID and has only climbed. We’ve got a soft job market. We’ve got all sorts of challenges that affect our community,” said Kevin “Ohio” Walker, letter carrier and food drive coordinator for the Walled Lake post office, as he hung posters promoting the campaign on local mailboxes.
Walker, who has been heading the Walled Lake campaign for seven years, said that his favorite part of the food drive is seeing the caravan of mail trucks filled to the brim with donations line up to deliver the food to Hospitality House.
“It’s near and dear to my heart,” said Walker, who has participated in the event since 2015. “Before the post office, I had a difficult professional career and there were times where I was a client of a food bank to make sure that my family was fed, and so this particular thing that our union does is always near and dear to my heart.”
Walled Lake letter carrier Christina Davis-Brown, 30, of Detroit said that the drive is especially important to her, as she also once utilized area food pantries.
“Giving back means everything to me because at one point, I was less fortunate, and I was the one that was receiving these things from the food drive. So, it means a lot that I am able to assist and actually help the people that are in need now,” she said.
She said her favorite thing about the drive is just watching everyone at her office and throughout the community come together.
“Everyone chips in, helps out,” she said.
“Food insecurity does not stay in any one single socioeconomic class. It quite literally can affect anyone at any time,” Walker said.
Davis-Brown has been participating in the drive for seven years. She said one of her favorite moments with the drive is watching kids get excited about it and helping out with the drive. She said she really enjoyed seeing kids serving hot dogs to the carriers at Hospitality House last year as they brought in all the goods they collected.
Walker said he has never spoken directly with someone he has helpd, but his customers often thank him and the post office for orchestrating the campaign. He said they tell him all the time how much they appreciate the efforts of the letter carriers to collect items for the poor.
One of those customers is Sue Zoma, of Commerce Township.. Zoma frequently leaves various nonperishable items for the carriers to donate, not just during the food drive, but throughout the year.
Zoma, a devout Catholic, said it is important to her to follow in the footsteps of Mother Teresa. She said that Mother Teresa went to India to help the poor, but she doesn’t feel she has to leave the country to help the poor, as there are plenty of poor people right here.
“If I have the opportunity to help, then why not do that?” she said. “I think it’s something wonderful.”
Zoma said that she would encourage other people to donate to the Letter Carrier Food Drive and to help the poor in whatever way they can.
“If we keep helping each other, we’re not going to have poor people on this earth,” Zoma said.
Walker said they are not just looking to collect canned and nonperishable food items, but other items that the pantry is looking for as well, such as toiletries, toothbrushes, diapers of all sizes, clothes and more. He said that he believes they are seeing an uptick in multigenerational living, and consequently, they are seeing a need to collect adult diapers as well as infant diapers and everything in between.
“Basically, if you can kind of imagine what you need to run your own house, that’s the need that their clients have,” Walker said.
The food drive will take place on May 9 — the food drive is always the second Saturday in May. Carriers, along with hundreds of volunteers, will be collecting items to take directly to Hospitality House at the end of their shifts.
Davis-Brown said she will be coming in on her day off with her 8-year old son to collect items from customers along her route.
Walker said that rain often seems to deter people from donating and wanted to make sure people know that a little water on a bag of donations will not stop the letter carriers from collecting the items.
“Don’t let the rain scare you from donating,” he said. “We will pick up a wet bag of food. The need hasn’t gone away. It has only risen since I’ve been doing this. So, if you’ve got it in the cupboard or if you’re out shopping this week, pick up a little extra, and we will get it to where it needs to go to serve the clients who are their neighbors. When you donate to this food drive here, you are donating right to your neighbors, and you don’t have to have that awkward conversation. You don’t have to know your neighbor to make sure you’re helping take care of them.”