The numbers are in, and generous Americans did it again. For the eighth year in a row, the nation's biggest food drive collected more than 70 million pounds of food.

On May 14, they emptied their pantries and donated 70.2 million pounds of groceries during this year's Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Since its inception in 1993, the program has distributed more than a billion pounds of food to families in need.

"It's a wonderful feeling to see the shelves of our Marketplace fully stocked again," said Val Traore, Executive Director of the Food Bank of South Jersey. "Our client base is growing, and there just isn't enough food inventory to meet the demand. Stamp Out Hunger allows us to continue to get food into the hands of our neighbors who need a wholesome meal."

Stamp Out Hunger, the nation's largest single-day food drive, is run in partnership with the National Association of Letter Carriers. On the second Saturday in May, participants fill a bag with nonperishable food and leave it at their mailbox before their regular mail delivery. The nation's 230,000 letter carriers then do the rest, picking up the donations and delivering them to food banks and feeding programs in their local communities.

Campbell's support of the drive includes the design and printing of 80 million direct-mail reminder postcards and a national public relations campaign that includes extensive use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as television and radio public service announcements. But the heart of the campaign is the grass-roots media outreach that occurs in the 10,000 communities across the country that participate in the program.

"We provide the tools: a media timeline, press release, images and more via our partner Web site to assist local food banks and letter carriers to mobilize their communities through media outreach," said John Faulkner, Director-Brand Communications.

The numbers speak for themselves. The campaign generated 239.5 million media impressions this year, including editorial mentions in Woman's Day, Self and other magazines, 3,300 airings of a public service announcement featuring celebrity spokesman Nick Cannon, 6,000 local television segments and 102,000 new members on the Facebook Causes application.

Through its “Nourishing” corporate social responsibility program, Campbell has been widely recognized for making a positive impact in the workplace, in the marketplace and in the communities in which it operates. The company has been added to the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, named to the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List by Corporate Responsibility magazine, and named a Catalyst Award Winner in 2010. Campbell recently published its 2011 Update to the Corporate Social Responsibility report, which describes the company’s strategies, policies and programs that will help drive the company toward four comprehensive goals by 2020. The report can be accessed in its entirety at www.campbellsoupcompany.com/csr

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