From staff reports
Published: May 8, 2008

Letter carriers will be carrying the mail — and food — Saturday. Those they deliver to will be people in need.

It’s the annual Help Stamp Out Hunger food drive, which benefits food banks around the nation, including this area’s Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network.

Letter carriers will pick up nonperishable food items left in bags next to mailboxes along the carriers’ routes. The carriers will pick up people’s donations along with the mail, and deliver the food to the food bank.

“This is huge for us. This is one of our largest food drives of the year,” said Ruth Jones, spokeswoman for the Blue Ridge network, which covers food banks in the city of Lynchburg and the counties of Appomattox, Amherst, Bedford, Campbell and Nelson.

Through last year’s drive, a total of 149,000 pounds of food was collected, with more than one third of it coming from Lynchburg.

This year, the need is more pressing. “It’s a really difficult time,” Jones said.

Some people, who were barely making ends meet, no longer can do so in the face of rising prices for food and fuel, she said. Meanwhile, economic conditions have led to a decrease in donations to food banks as donors feel the pinch, too.

Those who can donate and wish to may leave out bags filled with canned meats, fish, soup, juice, pasta and vegetables, and boxes of pasta, cereal and rice. (No glass containers or out-of-date items, Jones said.)