The post office will be collecting more than mail and packages on Saturday.

For the 27th year, Butler mail carriers will be helping out as part of Stamp Out Hunger, a nationwide one-day food drive conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers with cooperation from the U.S. Postal Service.

Both active and retired carriers will be collecting nonperishable food donations left by residents' mail boxes during their regular deliveries. Food donations could also be taken to the back door of the Main Street Post Office until 4 p.m.

Last year the carriers collected 16,000 pounds of food, according to Susan Hoover-Got, a Butler carrier and event coordinator.

Hoover-Got said the program is popular because it takes little effort to leave donations by your mail box.

“It's easy because we go there anyway,” Hoover-Got said. “We have a unique advantage where we go to every house every day.”

Hoover-Got said everybody in the city should have received a postcard in their mailboxes on Thursday or Friday. She said it's important for people to attach that card to bags or boxes full of donations, especially if the resident has garbage picked up on Saturday too.

Hoover-Got said drop-offs are a great way to avoid confusion, but she said the post office would prefer if people waited until Saturday, when the office will be prepared to take donations.

Hoover-Got said she has seen the impact the donations have on the community because she gets thank-you letters every year from local food banks. She said donating at this time of year is especially helpful to families with young children.

“The kids that normally get help at school are not getting that because they're not in school during the summertime,” Hoover-Got said.

Sandra Curry, community partnership manager for ANR, said the food banks also have need for clean and unused hygiene items in addition to the nonperishable foods. She said ANR will be receiving and disbursing a large shipment of rice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, so that is one area they have covered.

“We're always in need. We never turn donations away,” Curry said.

Curry said 16,000 pounds of food from last year turned into 26 pallets of food.

“We have 24 pantries that we work, so that goes for a little over one pallet per pantry,” Curry said. “That gives them an extra pallet of food than they would normally receive from us during the month of May.”

Curry said ANR helps feed between 4,000 and 5,000 county residents each month. She said food banks typically see upticks during the summer.

“Thank you in advance from us. We appreciate the food, and it's a great way to treat hunger outreach and food insecurity,” Curry said.