-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Letter carriers across the country are participating in the Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Donated items should be placed in a bag like the one pictured next to their mailboxes on Saturday, and your letter carrier will pick it up.

For the 27th year, letter carriers across the nation are collecting food to help support local organizations that fight hunger.

The National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger food drive will be held Saturday.

Laura Kilpatrick, who is helping to organize the local food drive along with Kelli Knudson, said the food drive is collecting non-perishable foods such as pasta, cereal, oatmeal and canned goods.

Those wanting to donate should put their non-perishable foods into a bag next to their mailbox on Saturday starting at 9 a.m.

“We start driving around and picking it up then,” Kilpatrick said.

Otherwise, she said food can be dropped off at the post office, 3440 Maple Drive.

The food drive is usually successful. Kilpatrick said in 2017, the last year she had data for, more than 700 pounds of food was collected in Fort Dodge.

That number increased across the entire branch, which is NACL 645. According to Kilpatrick, across the branch more than 15,000 pounds were collected in 2017.

The branch includes Fort Dodge, Algona, Carroll, Clarion, Eagle Grove, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Rolfe, Storm Lake, Laurens and Woolstock.

“Each town’s (collection) goes to their local food banks,” she said. “We get it in, we sort through it and kind of disperse it.”

Locally, the food goes to the Lord’s Cupboard, Beacon of Hope, the Domestic/Sexual Assault Outreach Center, The Salvation Army, Holy Trinity Parish and the Lotus Community Project, among others.