3749-Mobile Tribune in talks with USPS to negotiate a food donation parcel rate for Hambre.org

Mobile Tribune, an online publication based in Mobile,Alabama and reporting news worldwide via blogs, is in talks with representatives from the United States Postal Service to negotiate a new postal rate called the Food Donation Parcel Rate that will allow Americans to ship small parcels of non-perishable food to countries as far away as Africa. Mobile Tribune publisher and editor Preston Brady III registered the Internet domain name Hambre.org in 2003 with intent to utilize it in a program that would provide a new way for people to help feed the hungry. If the program moves forward, Hambre.org, which means "hunger" in Spanish, would compile a directory of charitable organizations and churches worldwide who would receive the donated food packages on behalf of those in their communities. Hambre.org would vet the organizations in a procedure that would follow-up with some of the recipients of the donations. The directory would be published on Hambre.org and visitors could select any organization they wish and then follow instructions for preparing the food parcels and mailing them. 

"We have agreed with the postal service at this point that the special food donation rate would not guarantee an arrival time of the donation and that parcels may be held in cases of remote destinations until a certain number are received and ready for shipment," said Brady. He stressed that the program is not designed to take anything away from the many organizations who currently receive cash donations and channel food in that manner. "It's just a way for those who normally would not donate money, or do not do so with frequency, to make a real, actual food donation themselves." The process is still in early stages and as soon as readied will be announced on the web site and through other media.