NATCHEZ — Saturday is Letter Carrier Stamp Out Hunger Day, and local letter carriers are encouraging residents to participate in the annual food drive by donating non-perishable foods.

It’s simple, said Frank Patti, a retired letter carrier who is heading up this year’s local effort. Just leave the food by your mailbox on Saturday and your local and rural letter carrier will pick it up.

“No glass jars,” Patti said. “It all has to be non-perishable food.”

He said people can leave as much food as they want to leave but encouraged people to put them in brown paper bags or other plastic grocery-style bags.

“It all has to be edible,” Patti said. “Put as much as you want. It just depends on what you want to give. Give what you can — one can, two cans — any little bit helps.”

NATCHEZ — The food collected Saturday, Patti said, will stay local and will go to the Natchez Children’s Home, the Natchez Stewpot, Catholic Charities, the Battered Women Shelter and food banks at local churches.

The Letter Carrier Stamp Out Hunger Day is a national effort of the National Association of Letter Carriers. It is held the second Saturday of each May since 1993. Patti said local and rural letter carriers in the Miss-Lou have been participating in the event for approximately 10 years.

Through the years, the local effort has grown.

“We might have picked up a couple of hundred pounds of food,” Patti said of the first year. “The volume has gone up to 20 to 30 thousand pounds.”

He said Natchez Market No. 1 has in recent years donated brown grocery bags for the effort and students from area schools have helped to unload and distribute the collected foods.

Patti encouraged everyone to donate on Saturday.

“We appreciate whatever everybody can give,” Patti said. “One or more cans of food will help.”