Postal employees to deliver mail, pick up food items

Utah letter carriers will hold their annual food drive Saturday.

Utahns are encouraged to participate by placing non-perishable food, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta or rice, in a bag near their mailbox prior to mail delivery.

All of the food will be distributed to local food banks, whose shelves are traditionally bare this time of year.

Last year, Utah letter carriers collected a record 1.2 million pounds of food. Nationwide, the drive delivered a record 73.1 million pounds.

Postal employees in all 50 states will participate in the food drive, which since 1993 has resulted in delivery of more than 900 million pounds of donations to community food banks and pantries. The Letter Carriers' Food Drive is the largest one-day food collection in the nation.

"While it takes a lot of letter carriers and other volunteers to make it work, it's ultimately the generosity of those we serve that makes the food drive so successful each year," said Mike Wahlquist, Salt Lake City letter carrier and president of Branch 111 of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Food banks are notoriously empty during summer months, having exhausted the supply of donations received from food drives conducted during the holidays that are then distributed during spring.