Each year, the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive occurs on the second Saturday in May, benefiting local food banks. The effort is the country’s largest single-day food drive, providing residents with an easy way to donate food to their neighbors in need. In the 30 years since it began, the national food drive has collected about 1.82 billion pounds of food for those struggling to put food on the table. On Saturday, May 14, while on their mail routes, this area’s approximately 150 city carriers and 50 rural carriers collected donations of food that residents placed near their mailboxes. In the afternoon, All Faiths Food Bank staff and volunteers were based at 10 different letter carrier drop-off locations, at the ready to load trucks to take these food donations back to the food bank. At the food bank (8171 Blaikie Ct., Sarasota), additional volunteers and staff sorted and arranged food in the warehouse to help prepare for future distribution. This year, thanks to generous community members and the area’s letter carriers, a gratifying total of 80,210 of food was collected. “Time and time again, we have been heartened by this community’s response when their friends and neighbors are in need,” said All Faiths Food Bank CEO Sandra Frank. “As the pandemic and worsening economic conditions continue to impact those who were already at-risk for hunger – as well as families new to food insecurity – we would like to extend our gratitude to those who donated bags of food as well as our community’s letter carriers, who cheerfully went above and beyond to collect the food this year.”