SCRANTON -- Just a little bit of effort by you on Saturday can be a big help for those who are hungry.
Saturday is "Stamp Out Hunger Day." All you have to do is put out a bag with nonperishable food for your mail carrier to pick up.
Letter carriers out on their routine Saturday routes hope to find bags of food at mailboxes.
The food will help fill empty shelves at food banks like the Bread Basket pantry on Linden Street in downtown Scranton, where there is plenty of need.
"It is the youth, it is the working force, and it is the elderly. Hunger touches everyone," said Sandra Roberts, Bread Basket of NEPA.
A lot of the people getting food have incomes but not enough to make ends meet.
The letter carriers say the "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive is one of the biggest of the year to help local food pantries.
"It's a huge day," said Roberts. "It's a day when any resident can make a difference right there on their door step, right at their mailbox."
In Lackawanna County, the food banks that benefit tried to make it even easier, buying 110,000 yellow bags that were delivered to nearly every home, an easy reminder to fill it with food.
They were used two years ago as well.
"We had bags, it was very successful. Last year it was kind of mediocre so they were able to bring back bags," said Stamp Out Hunger coordinator Casey Connor.
But even if you didn't get a yellow bag, you can help with this effort. Any bag any nonperishable food in any part of northeastern or central Pennsylvania will go to food pantries near you.
"We couldn't make it much easier," said Heather Feist of the Weinberg Regional Food Bank. "You don't have to drive anywhere; you just have to put the food out by the mailbox."
It is good timing for the food drive because this time of year donations tend to be low and the need goes up, so your help is even more appreciated.
"This is a very low donation time for us, and with the children getting out of school soon, one in four kids are food insecure and hungry, so they're not getting that subsidized breakfast and lunch from school," Feist explained.
If you got a yellow bag, just fill it with food and put it out before the letter carrier shows up on Saturday. If you didn't get a yellow bag, and that's most of our area, just fill any bag and put it out Saturday morning.
