The Clanton Post Office is marking its 16th year of participating in the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

The annual drive allows post offices like Clanton’s to help provide local food banks with items to give to people in need.

Residents who would like to contribute this year may place sacks filled with non-perishable, non-expired food items next to their mailboxes prior to their normal morning mail delivery time on Saturday, May 11.

Mail carriers will pick up the sacks Saturday morning and take them to the post office, where representatives from the Chilton County Emergency Assistance Center will pick them up the following Monday.

The Chilton County EMA distributes food to families in need.

“Our goal this year is to raise more than 5,000 pounds (of food),” said Rena Crumpton, post office clerk. “We would like to raise more than we did last year.”

Crumpton said the post office is not providing sacks this year, but residents may use brown paper bags or plastic bags to hold food items they are donating.

Although carriers will only pick up sacks on Saturday, Crumpton said people may bring them to the post office during business hours Friday or on Monday morning before lunchtime.

“If someone misses their carrier, they can even come in and bring it to the post office from 9–12 Saturday,” Crumpton said. “We can still take it Monday morning. We’re not going to turn anything down.”

Chilton County raised 4,000 pounds in 2011 and close to the same amount last year.

In 2012, letter carriers around the United States collected more than 70 million pounds of non-perishable food donations, bringing the total from more than 20 years of collections to 1.2 billion pounds.

The NALC Food Drive, the country’s largest one-day food collection effort, takes place the second Saturday of May every year and has served as a way for post offices to support their communities through food donation collection for 21 years.