This Saturday, mail carriers are picking up not only letters and packages, but canned soup, cereal, and pasta.
On the second Saturday of May, letter carriers partner with food pantries to help keep shelves stocked over the summer months.
Jennifer Stensaas is with Feeding South Dakota. She says theStamp Out Hunger Food Drive is now in its 24th year.
“Last year this food drive brought in 86,000 lbs which is the highest its been in a long time," said Stensaas. "And to put that into perspective, here locally in Sioux Falls our food pantry distributes around 70,000 lbs of food every month and this food drive is our largest food drive that we benefit from.”
Stensaas says the food drive comes at a time when most pantries are running low on donations.
“School is being let out in June and a lot of those kids are going to not have access to the breakfast and lunch programs that they normally do during the school year putting a little bit more strain on those families to provide a little bit more food during the summer time.”
Stensaas says in South Dakota the number of people in need of food assistance consistently averages one out of every eight people.