Postal workers to collect food Saturday

The diligence of nation's letter carriers and the persistence of hunger will unite in a common cause Saturday during the 17th annual Letter Carriers' National Food Drive.

Postal workers aren't daunted by rain or snow or dead of night, and neither is hunger, said Utah Food Bank Services spokeswoman Jessica Pugh in asking Utahns to donate food to the Stamp Out Hunger! food drive Saturday.

A bag of nonperishable food can be left by mailboxes Saturday for the carriers to pick up as they make their rounds.

Pugh said the drive is key to meeting emergency food requests through the summer, the off season for donations to the state's food banks. The drive is especially important for children who, during the summer months, see most school lunch programs suspended.

"This year's drive is particularly important because requests continue to be about 30 percent higher compared to a year ago," Pugh said. Most-needed food items include canned fruit, peanut butter, tuna fish, pasta, and canned chilis and stews, she added.

In Utah and across the nation, this food drive has emerged one of the largest single-day food drives, pushing the nationwide total for the first 16 years to well more than half billion pounds of food. Locally, Utah Food Bank Services hopes to receive more than 350,000 pounds of food from the one-day drive.

More than 120 million postcards, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company and the U.S. Postal Service's Priority Mail, have been mailed to postal customers to remind them of the drive.

The postal union is seeking to exceed last year's record 73.1 million pounds of food delivered to community food banks and pantries.

Union President William H. Young said the food donations from postal customers will help millions of American families caught in the downward economic spiral that has caused high unemployment and tightened credit.

Donations will be collected along postal routes in more than 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions.

E-MAIL: jthalman@desnews.com