Letter carriers in Seattle and across the country will be pulling double duty on Saturday, as part of the 25th annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
The largest one-day food drive in the nation collected approximately 80 million pounds of nonperishable food last year, with more than 1.5 billion pounds collected since its inception in 1993.
According to the National Association of Letter Carriers, the top-requested non-perishable items are cereal, pasta, pasta sauces, rice, canned fruits and vegetables, canned meals, 100 percent juice, macaroni and cheese, canned protein (tuna, chicken), and beans (both canned and dry).
To participate, place a bag or box with your donation before your mail is delivered on May 13 (before 9 a.m. is recommended). Those donations are then sorted and distributed to local food banks.
“Too many people in this country are going hungry,” said NALC President Fredric Rolando in a press release. “We know this to be true because we see it as we deliver to every address in America at least six days a week.”
In all, more than 200,000 letter carriers will collect donations in more than 10,000 communities in the U.S.
For more information, visit www.stampouthungerfooddrivve.us.