The thought of anyone going hungry was enough to inspire Ashley Force Hood to get involved.

The iconic Funny Car driver is participating in the United States Postal Service’s drive to Stamp Out Hunger. She’s not the official spokesperson, but her influence in racing is enough to make those spearheading the effort excited about her participation.

“You hear the stories of those who are hungry and it’s hard to picture that,” Force Hood said. “We can all take things for granted from time to time, and you just assume there’s always enough food to go around and sometimes there isn’t in our communities.”

The thought of anyone going hungry was enough to inspire Ashley Force Hood to get involved.

The iconic Funny Car driver is participating in the United States Postal Service’s drive to Stamp Out Hunger. She’s not the official spokesperson, but her influence in racing is enough to make those spearheading the effort excited about her participation.

“You hear the stories of those who are hungry and it’s hard to picture that,” Force Hood said. “We can all take things for granted from time to time, and you just assume there’s always enough food to go around and sometimes there isn’t in our communities.”

This weekend, Force Hood is joined by a representative of the St. Louis postal system as well as representatives from the Campbell’s Soup brand.

Last year, the Stamp Out Hunger drive collected a record 74.3 million pounds of food nationwide. In eighteen years they’ve collected 900 pounds of food.

“We’re hoping to do more than that this year,” said Barry Linan, Vice President, NLC Branch 343 in St. Louis, local coordinator for Stamp Out Hunger. “We’d just like to remind everyone to place their non-perishable goods alongside of their mailbox for their letter carriers.”

The Stamp Out Hunger food drive is scheduled for May 8. Residents are asked to set out their non-perishable good for collection by their mail carriers. The collected food is then delivered to the local food shelters in their respective towns.

Joe Huxhold and Andrew Pressberry of Campbell’s Soup attended the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis to show their support of Force-Hood as well as to reinforce their support of the drive.

“We came out today and we didn’t have a clue just how big drag racing is,” said Pressberry, Campbell’s Soup Retail Business Manager, who was attending his first drag race.

“I think having Ashley involved in the program is only going to help it grow. In my eyes now, Ashley Force-Hood is bigger than Danica Patrick.”

Force Hood initially found out about the program while reading a Redbook magazine last year. She texted the program to her friends, then tweeted on twitter and the next day she got a call from officials of Stamp Out thanking her.

“What we do is exciting on the track but it is even better when you can use that towards a worthwhile project like this that helps the community and the country,” said Force Hood.

The reason the program is staged in May is largely because of the number of children who face hunger in the summer months because they are out of school. Often times, Force Hood conveyed, the main source of meals for many of those children is school.

“It’s said when you realize this goes on,” Force Hood said. “[Hunger] is a bigger problem than many realize. It’s so really easier to help when you look at how they have set it up. It couldn’t be any easier for those who want to get involved to do so.”