When you throw your birthday card in the mailbox for your grandma on Saturday, make sure you put a few cans of soup nearby too. The National Association of Letter Carriers is conducting its 31st annual Stamp Out Food Drive on Saturday. Nationwide, the Stamp Out Food Drive has turned into the largest one-day campaign to collect food for needy families, collecting over 41 million pounds of food in 2022 and 1.82 billion pounds since the program started. Darrel LeCloux has organized the effort locally for several years, helping collect tens of thousands of pounds of food countywide every year. It comes at an important time for food pantries like Lakeshore CAP according to Sandi Soik who says they are receiving less food from the United States Department of Agriculture and more requests from the community.

If you want to participate in this year’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, you can place a bag of non-perishable food near your mailbox before their letter carrier arrives so it can then be delivered to local community churches, food banks, and pantries for distribution.