SALT LAKE CITY – The Postal Service and its letter carriers will hold their annual food drive on Saturday, May 11. Utahns are encouraged to participate by placing non-perishable food items in bags, and leaving them by their mailbox before mail delivery on May 11. All the food collected will go to local community food banks and pantries.

This is the 21st year for the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, which has collected more than one billion pounds of food since its inception. Last year Americans donated more than 70 million pounds of food, including one million pounds of food in the Beehive state.

Examples of non-perishable items include: peanut butter, canned soup, canned meats, canned vegetables, fruits and juices, boxed goods (such as cereal), pasta and rice. Do not donate items that have expired or are in glass containers.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual study measuring food security in the United States, more than 50 million Americans, including 17 million children, are food insecure, meaning they live at risk of hunger. In Utah, an estimated 137,824 households face food insecurity.

The food drive is part of a nationwide drive designed to fill food bank pantries through the summer months, when levels are traditionally low. The effort by the USPS, members of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Rural Letter Carriers and other volunteers is the largest one-day food drive in the nation.

“The Postal Service is proud to play a major role with our carriers, corporate partners, and local community organizations to help stamp out hunger,” said USPS Salt Lake District Manager Ken McArthur.

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.

Note: Media interested in doing a story about the Food Drive are encouraged to contact their local postmaster/Post Office. Thanks in advance for your news coverage of this important community event.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 152 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 more than 31,000 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 42nd in the 2012 Fortune 500. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for seven years and the fourth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

Follow the Postal Service on www.twitter.com/USPS and at www.facebook.com/USPS.