Tomorrow's mail pickup will feature more than just first class and maybe some postage due envelopes. The letter carriers will also collect a new type of "special delivery" mail for delivery to the three food pantries that help feed the hungry in town.

Saturday, May 10, will be the 16th annual National Association of Letter Carriers "Stamp Out Hunger" Food Drive, not only here in town, but in every state in the union.

The labor group settled on the second Saturday of May for the annual drive since food bank donations tend to wane after the winter holidays. In 2007, the drive delivered 70.7 million pounds of non-perishable donated items to local food organizations - the fourth consecutive year the total surpassed 70 million pounds.

Last year's figure brought the overall total for the nationwide drive's history to 836 million pounds.

John Colaccino, a supervisor at the Southington Post Office, said "We have 31 carrier routes in town, 22 of which are city routes, and the remaining eight being rural ones. People can leave non perishable goods where they leave their mail for pick up on Saturday, and the collected food will be dropped off at the YMCA, where it will processed and distributed to either the Community Services department, Bread for Life or the Tabernacle Church."

Colaccino noted, "The Milldale and Marion post offices do not have carrier routes, just post office boxes, but people can bring food there for collection drop off. Last year, the drive collected 23,000 pounds of non perishable goods."

Eldon Hafford, executive director for Bread for Life, Southington's food program, said, "We at Bread for Life want to thank the postal carriers and the town in advance for their support in this drive. Everyone in town makes this happen so that no one may go hungry."

Hafford suggests that anyone donating packaged foods look at the expiration date or "best used by" date on the product before placing it out for collection. He also notes that the many seniors his group serves may require low sodium diets, so that items that contain low or less sodium would be appreciated.

Among the standbys are pasta sauce, tuna in water, low sodium vegetables and ketchup, mayonnaise, salad dressings, peanut butter, jelly, and canned or bottled juices.

"This drive is coming at just the right time for us," Janet Mellon, director of Southington Community Services Department, said.

"Last week, the shelves at our pantry were completely empty. That's the first time in the eight years I've been here that has happened. The Bread for Life gave us food that they had raised for their purposes, and I thank them for that. That's the type of cooperative effort that is going on now. I think we are all working together to try and resolve the problem of hunger in Southington."

The Tabernacle's representative, Claudia Castro, said this was the first time her group has participated in the food drive.

"We're very excited to be involved, along with the other two groups. Our ‘giving back' program operates two food giveaways for those that need it, one for fresh produce on Tuesdays and another on Saturdays for nonperishable goods, on Darling Street.

"Drives like these expand our food sources, which eases somewhat the burden on our church members," she said.