This Saturday, leave a little something at the mailbox.

May 10 marks the 22nd anniversary of one of America’s great days of giving — the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

Manna Food Pantries is among the local beneficiaries of the drive, and last week’s epic rain storm flooded out Manna’s main pantry, ruining the entire inventory of food on hand.

It’s easy to help — just leave a bag(s) of nonperishable and non-expired food donations at your mailbox and your letter carrier will do the rest.

Although it will be eight to 12 weeks before Manna can resume service to the hungry, temporary warehouse space has been secured to house the donations that will help the critical relief organization restock and prepare to fill this important need once more.

Each year on the second Saturday in May, letter carriers across the country collect nonperishable food donations from their customers.

Escambia and Santa Rosa County letter carriers will collect donations for Manna, Warrington Emergency Aid, Bay Area Food Bank in Pace and Milton, Acts Ministries in Gulf Breeze and We Care Ministries of Navarre United Methodist Church.

Last year, the organizations collected more than 150,000 pounds of food from the drive.

Last year, the food drive collected over 74 million pounds of food nationally, feeding an estimated 30 million people. Almost 1.3 billion pounds of food has been collect in the drive’s history.

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