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DOWAGIAC — Every second Saturday in May, letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America participate in the largest one-day food drive in the nation. For the last 20 years, one local post office has been participating in the drive, and collected literal tons of food for pantries in the area.

The Dowagiac branch of the United States Postal Service collected 4,000 pounds of food during the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, a nationwide drive sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association.

Carriers collect non-perishable food donations left by mailboxes and in post offices and deliver them to local community food banks, pantries and shelters. Donations received were given locally to ACTION Ministries, St. Francis Outreach and the Dowagiac Church of Christ.

“We filled them up pretty good,” said retired postal worker Mary Means. “It’s a really good feeling. … We’ve had a lot of people doing this for a lot of years – a lot of the old retirees, and they’re happy to get together to see each other as well. ”

According to Means, this is the first food drive since the pandemic, and wouldn’t have been possible without other volunteers and former postal workers donating their time to the cause.

“The Dowagiac Post Office, along with the NALC and NRLCA would like to thank the community for their generous support,” said Trysha Sellon, of the Dowagiac post office. “Thank you also to all of the volunteers who donated their time to make the food drive a success.”