Montana Letter Carriers to Collect Canned Food For Hungry on Sat., May 10

Stamp Out Hunger Logo BILLINGS, MT — On Saturday, May 10, Montana's letter carriers will be doing more than delivering the mail. They will once again collect food on their routes to feed the hungry in their communities. May 10 is the date for the annual National Association of 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 10th, before mail delivery.

Items most needed are canned meats, soups, fruits and vegetables; and dry/non-perishable packaged items with lots of protein and carbohydrates like powdered milk, pasta, cereals and dried packaged vegetables like mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc. About 1.3 lbs. of food equates to one full meal.

Montana donated 367,000 pounds to the letter carriers’ food drive in 2007. All the food collected goes to local community food banks and pantries for distribution to those who most need it throughout the year.

A total of 10,000 communities and Post Offices in all 50 states are participating this year. Last year’s postal food drive collected 70.7 million pounds nationwide. This is the 16th year of the annual drive. Over three quarters of a billion pounds from the drives have gone to feed America’s hungry since 1993.

"We encourage postal customers throughout our great state to again give generously to our letter carriers' food drive on Saturday, May 10,” says John DiPeri, postal district manager for Montana. “Your contributions go right back to Montana's communities to help feed the needy, the disadvantaged children and families, and the elderly whom our letter carriers see on their routes every day. We thank our letter carriers, food drive volunteers and sponsors, community food banks and pantries, and our many postal customers who make the food drive such a success every year.”

Media can contact their local postmaster/Post Office to do advance or May 10 stories.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation — 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.