Utah letter carriers to hold food drive Saturday

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah letter carriers will hold their annual food drive on May 8.

All Utahns are encouraged to participate by placing nonperishable food — like canned soup, peanut butter, beans or rice — in a bag near their mailbox prior to mail delivery.

Letter carriers will pick up the donations as they make their rounds. All of the food will be distributed to local food banks, whose shelves are traditionally bare this time of year.

"As letter carriers, it's a great opportunity to serve our communities," said Mike Wahlquist, president of Salt Lake's Branch 111 of the National Association of Letter Carriers. "There's nothing quite like the feeling you get when you see bags of food around the mailbox and knowing that it's going to help a struggling family put food on the table."

According to the Utah Food Bank, more than 245,100 people, 42 percent of whom are children, receive emergency food each year through Utah Food Bank's food assistance network.

Last year Utah letter carriers collected 1 million pounds of food; nationwide the drive netted a record 73.4 million pounds.

Postal employees in all 50 states will participate in the food drive, which, since 1993, has resulted in delivery of nearly a billion pounds of donations to community food banks and pantries. The Letter Carriers' Food Drive is the largest one-day food collection in the nation.

For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger! effort in Utah, ask your letter carrier, contact your Post Office or visit helpstampouthunger.com.

— Lynn Arave