On Saturday, May 11 help your letter carrier “Stamp Out Hunger” by leaving a plastic bag filled with canned food donations by your mailbox during the largest one-day food drive in America. In Kingfisher County, the donations will go to help Cash-ion United Methodist Church, Good Samaritan Ministries and Frontline Ministries in collaboration with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

Since 1993, letter carriers, like myself, have been participating in the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive. In central and western Oklahoma, we have collected more than 11.3 million pounds of food. That is the equivalent of more than 9.4 million meals going to help feed our neighbors living with food insecurity.

 This food drive comes at a time of year when it is needed the most. As school is let out for the summer and utility bills begin to go up, the Regional Food Bank sees an uptick in the need for food assistance.

 The Regional Food Bank, and its more than 1,250 community-based partners, rely on your kindness to provide the nutritious meals that some of Oklahoma’s most vulnerable citizens deserve. As you fill your plastic bags this year, please think of the family that may not have any food in their pantry. Even the smallest donation could help a family struggling with the decision to pay their utility bills or feed their children.

 Your letter carrier will leave a plastic bag in your mailbox the week of May 6. All you need to do is fill that bag, or one of your own, and leave it by your mailbox by the morning of Saturday, May 11. Most needed items include: peanut butter, canned meats, canned vegetables, rice and beans.

 As letter carriers, we are honored to have this opportunity to help feed our Oklahoma neighbors living with hunger. We are grateful to the U.S. Postal Service for fully supporting the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive.

 With your support, the Regional Food Bank can continue to provide enough food to feed more than 616,000 Oklahomans, like they did last year.  The majority of those Oklahomans served were chronically hungry children, seniors on fixed incomes and hardworking families.

 If you would prefer to make a financial contribution to the Regional Food Bank, visit feeding-hope.org . Every dollar you donate to the Regional Food Bank helps to provide the equivalent of four meals.

 Letter carriers are supported in this humanitarian endeavor by the National Association of Letter Carriers, National Rural Letter Carriers Association and, most importantly of all, the U.S. Postal Service.