WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) union announced today that its 13th annual national food drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” will be conducted on Saturday, May 14 in over 10,000 cities and towns across America, with letter carriers collecting food donations as they deliver mail along their postal routes.

The NALC National Food Drive – held annually on the Second Saturday in May – has emerged as the largest one-day food drive in the nation, with a record collection of 70.9 million pounds of food last year, pushing the total for the first 12 years to well over a half billion pounds of food.

NALC President William H. Young emphasized that the donations collected from postal customers will be delivered to local food banks and pantries providing an opportunity for citizens to help the less fortunate in their own communities.

“Shelves at many community food banks and pantries are nearly empty,” Young said. “There has been an increased demand for food from working families whose income simply does not provide enough for housing, medicine, clothing and food. Too often children are forced to skip a meal.”

Young said donations are especially needed in advance of the summer months when millions of children who rely on nutrition from school lunch programs will be without that resource.

Over 1,400 local branches of the postal union in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam are involved in the 2005 drive, involving more than 10,000 cities and towns.

Participating in the drive is easy. Residents are asked to leave non-perishable food donations in a bag near their mailbox on Saturday, May 14 before arrival of their letter carrier. The donation will be taken to the post office and then delivered to a local food bank or pantry. Glass containers or out-of-date items should not be included.

In New York City and Chicago, postal customers are being asked to take donations to their local post offices during the week of May 7-14.

Over 110 million postcards, produced by the Campbell Soup Company and the U.S. Postal Service, will be mailed to postal customers in early May to alert them of the drive. The postcards feature a cartoon by “Family Circus” artist Bil Keane. In addition Valpak, the direct marketing system, plans to mail 40 million packets to postal customers in envelopes promoting the food drive.

Joining Campbell Soup, the Postal Service and Valpak as major supporters are the United Way of America and local United Ways, the AFL-CIO, and America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest food bank network.