WASHINGTON – Letter carriers across the country will collect non-perishable food donations Saturday (May 13) as they deliver mail along their postal routes in the nation’s largest one-day effort to combat hunger in America.

Members of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), joined by thousands of rural letter carriers, hope to exceed last year’s record 71.3 million pounds of food delivered to community food banks, pantries and shelters.

Donations from postal customers will be collected in over 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the District of Columbia.

Residents are being asked to leave non-perishable food donations – such as canned meat, fish and soup, and cereals, pasta and rice – in a bag near their mailbox on Saturday before their letter carrier arrives.

Over 115 million postcards, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company and the U.S. Postal Service, have been mailed to postal customers to remind them of the drive. If a resident did not receive a postcard, they should check with their letter carrier or local post office for information about the drive.

Co-sponsors of the drive with the letter carriers’ union are the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup, Cox Target Media, United Way of America and local United Ways, the AFL-CIO and America’s Second Harvest.