22nd annual Letter Carriers' Food Drive is Saturday

The future of Saturday mail remains in limbo. But one staple of six-day mail is the annual Letter Carriers' Food Drive, which will celebrate its 22nd year on Saturday.

"It is the nation's largest single-day food drive, and is held annually on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam," says a press release from the National Association of Letter Carriers. "Using the unparalleled postal networks, letter carriers will collect non-perishable food donations on that day as they deliver mail along their postal routes."

During last year's drive letter carriers collected 74.4 million pounds of food, the second-highest amount since the drive began in 1992, the release says. Participating is easy. "People are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, canned meats and fish, pasta, peanut butter, rice or cereal, next to their mailbox before the regular mail delivery on Saturday." (Read more)