JACKSON, MS — On Saturday, May 11, residents across America will be asked to join the U.S. Postal Service and its delivery carriers to combat one of this nation’s growing problems — hunger, by leaving food at their mailboxes. This one-day food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive across America — including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

In 2012, letter carriers nationally collected 70 million pounds of food donated by customers on their delivery routes.  Nearly 1.2 billion pounds of food have been collected since the food drive began in 1993.

Residents are encouraged to leave non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal next to their mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on Saturday, May 11.

Carriers will collect these food donations as they deliver the mail and take them to their local food bank or pantry.  About 50 million Americans — including 17 million children — now live in families that lack sufficient food.

Participating Post Offices in Mississippi are Amory, Batesville, Bay Saint Louis, Belmont, Biloxi, Bogue Chitto, Booneville, Boyle, Brandon (Hwy. 80 location only), Brooklyn, Carthage, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Collins, Columbia, Corinth, Crystal Springs, DeKalb, Delta State University, D’ Iberville, Foxworth, Fulton, Golden, Greenwood, Grenada, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Holly Springs, Horn Lake, Indianola, Iuka, Jackson, Kokomo, Laurel, Lexington, Long Beach, Louisville, Lucedale, Lumberton, Marks, McCarley, McHenry, Meridian, Moss Point, Natchez, Newton, Ocean Springs, Olive Branch, Oxford, Pace, Pascagoula, Pass Christian, Pearl, Petal, Philadelphia, Picayune, Quitman, Ridgeland, Ripley, Senatobia, Southaven, Starkville, State Line, Terry, Toomsuba, Tupelo, Tylertown, Union, Vancleave, Vicksburg, Water Valley, Waynesboro, Wiggins, and Yazoo City.

For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, visit www.helpstampouthunger.com or www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger, and follow the drive at www.twitter.com/StampOutHunger.

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For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to http://about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

Follow the Postal Service on Twitter @USPS and at Facebook.com/usps.