With poverty rising, joblessness high and incomes flat, more and more people are forced to turn to food banks for help. That spurred the National Association of Letter Carriers to seek a record in its nationwide food drive Saturday, May 8.

Many NALC branches in Minnesota will be part of the food drive. To participate, place nonperishable food items next to your mailbox for pickup by Letter Carriers during their regular routes Saturday.

Drive sponsors, led by NALC, include Campbell Soup and, this year, Val-Pak. Its 43 million mailers included notices reminding recipients to donate goods at post offices nationwide.

The food--canned goods, dry goods and other non-perishable items--go to food banks nationally for distribution to the needy, especially in summer when school meal programs are closed.

"Many of the recipients are from working families," says NALC President William Young. They are "people who just need a helping hand to get through some tough times."

In 2003, NALC collected more than 61 million pounds of food. Young called that "incredible," vowing: "We are determined to go higher. Serious hunger affects many of our neighbors."

Second Harvest, a national coalition of food banks, reports that in 2001--the most recent federal figures available--33.6 million people were "food insecure, hungry or at risk of hunger." And it said 23.3 million people received aid from food banks. Of those, 39 percent were children, and 11 percent were elderly.