DENVER, CO – On Saturday, May 14, letter carriers in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and every state in the U.S. will be doing more than delivering the mail. They will once again collect bags of donated non-perishable food on their routes to feed the hungry in their communities. May 14th is the annual one-day letter carriers food drive across America.

Postal customers wishing to donate food should put canned, packaged and non-perishable food items in a plastic bag, and leave it by your mailbox on Sat., May 14th, before mail delivery.
Items most needed are canned meats, soups, fruits and vegetables; and dry/non-perishable packaged items like powdered milk, pasta, cereals and dried packaged vegetables like mashed potatoes and stuffing. About 1.3 lbs. equates to a full meal, according to food bank officials.

All the food collected goes to local community food banks and pantries for distribution to those who most need it throughout the year. In 2010, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana residents together donated nearly 1.5 million pounds of food to feed the hungry in their communities and states.

Last year’s letter carriers’ drive collected a record 77.1 million pounds nationwide to help feed America’s hungry. This is the 19th year of the postal food drive. Over 10,000 communities and Post Offices in all 50 states are participating this year. It’s the largest one-day food drive for the hungry in the U.S.

"We encourage postal customers across our great country to again give generously to our letter carriers' food drive this Sat., May 14th,” says Dawn Wallace, Denver, CO letter carrier and its local food drive coordinator. “With the continuing tough economy, more people remain out of jobs this year and many are struggling to feed their families. Your food donations will help out those who most need it. We thank our generous postal customers in every state for helping to stamp out hunger.”

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 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 $67 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 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. 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 six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.