On Saturday, May 10, Campbell Soup Company will join forces with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to Stamp Out Hunger! across America. Now in its 16th year, the Stamp Out Hunger! effort is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, having collected more than 836 million pounds of food since its inception in 1993.

To help Stamp Out Hunger! this year, simply leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal next to your mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on May 10. Food items should be in non-breakable containers, such as boxes and cans. The nation’s 230,000 letter carriers will then collect donations from homes across the country and deliver them to food bank members of America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network and other hunger relief organizations in more than 10,000 local communities.

We all know gas prices and food prices have gone through the roof. For some, this may mean not getting that second car, but for others it could mean no food for the day! Where I live in Upstate New York, there are numerous food banks in my own community who rely completely on local donations from food drive campaigns such as this one. I’ll be blunt: there have been hard times for us when we have received help from food banks. We’ve tried to return the blessing by donating food when we can, too. And my husband is a part-time rural mail carrier, so he helps by donating his precious time (mail carriers do not get paid for the extra time it takes to pick up the food and take it back to the post office).

Please help out with this campaign. It means so much to so many people, and it requires so little effort on your part. All you have to do is put a grocery bag of non-perishable food at your mailbox. Even one little can of corn or a box of rice helps! Since I have been both on the receiving and the giving end, campaigns like this mean so much to me! There is no excuse for our neighbors to go hungry. If you want to help out even more, join your local food bank and help distribute food to needy families, or check out this community page for Stamp Out Hunger.