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On Saturday, the annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will take place.

Jarret Black, customer service supervisor for the LaGrange Post Office, said the program started roughly 30 years ago as a way to give back and help fight hunger in local communities.

“We’re a business of customer service, and this is our opportunity every year to just extend our hand to help our local community in any way that we can,” Black said. “It seems to work well every year, and we get a lot of participants around the community. We want to continue that level of participation and show our support for LaGrange Personal Aid.”

Black said the best part of participating in the food drive is seeing employees engaged in  the community.

“Our employees love doing this when this time of the year comes. They get a little more pep in their step trying to help out because they see so much out there in the community,” Black said. “The food drive helps our community understand that we are a part of them, and we’re working to try to make the community better.”

Black said to participate in the food drive residents can leave a bag of can foods in their mailbox or can drop off donations directly to LaGrange Personal Aid or the post office.

LaGrange Personal Aid, a United Way agency, has been the recipient of donations from the food drive for many years.

Food Closet Coordinator Jennifer Tenney said in previous years thanks to the food drive, the organization has been able to receive an enormous surplus of food. She said since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the donations have gotten smaller.

“Last year, we had a dramatic drop in the amount of food that we got from the drive. So, this year we’re hoping to get back to our previous numbers in food donations,” Tenney said.

“People don’t have to use the plastic bag the mail carriers bring; you can use your own bags, or you can use the little paper bags that you can get from Publix.”

Tenney said to help with the drive Publix has donated 15,000 bags to be used in the food drive.

“Being able to receive much-needed donations from the drive allows us to help more families in the community,” Tenney said. :If we don’t have food to give out, then we can’t help people.”

For more information on the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive, call the LaGrange Post Office at (800) 275-8777 or LaGrange Personal Aid at 706-882-9291.