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By Doug Cunningham

Your friendly unionized neighborhood letter carrier will be collecting food donations this Saturday that go to local community food pantries around the country. The National Association of Letter Carriers’ Drew Von Bergen says this is an especially critical time of year to donate food.

[Von Bergen 1]: “Schools are pout and all those people who really rely on the school lunches as their really only nutrition during the day don’t have it. And therefore the need on the families is greater.”

This is the largest one day food drive in the world. A hundred and twenty million post cards promoting it have been mailed and each year more than 70 million pounds of food are collected. But Von Bergen says the need is even greater.

[Von Bergen 2]: “We’re hearing from the food banks and pantries around the country that this year the need is as great as ever. Particularly among working families, some even with two people in the family working, they still need to get food from a food pantry. And the other group – there are more and more senior citizens coming in – people who never in their life have had the need to go to a food pantry or food bank.”