Well this is nuts

We've got some tropical flair included our grocery bags this week: a lovely bunch of coconuts!

These thick-shelled cream-balls came to DC from Florida. Through the mail. One by one. For serious.

See, the US Postal Service recently decided to close a post office in Lantana, just outside of West Palm Beach. This cost-cutting measure brought some unexpected ovoid blowback upon USPS, when the small town organized in opposition. Residents sent some 1,000 coconuts by mail, adorned with $4 to $17 in postage and civilly disobedient marker-drawings. Flummoxed by this huge pile of protest fruit, the Postmaster General's office made the best of a politically awkward situation: they contacted their favorite local food pantry. (The Washington Post covered the whole story here.)

The coconuts arrived here yesterday (via the mail, of course).

The postmarked coconuts have filled our pantry to the brim. Eager staff have already practiced opening one, draining the milk and enjoying its meat. The coconuts are indeed edible, today we'll begin distributing them to our clients along with instructions on how to open, cook and eat them.

Whether or not the citizens of Lantana, Florida will have to drive an additional seven miles to pick up their packages remains to be seen. Bread for the City has no dog in the fight between Postmaster General John Potter and Lantana's nascent "access to mail" coalition. But we respect their tactical creativity, and are pleased to note that Lantana's abundant local food resource will bring some small relief to the poor and malnourished citizens of their nation's capital.