Postal workers in Richmond County will be giving back to the community on May 8.

Along with the carriers, the residents of Rockingham and surrounding cities have a chance to be a part of the annual food drive with the National Association of Letter Carriers.

The 18th annual NALC National Food Drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” is the largest one-day food drive in the nation, according to the postal service. Carriers collected a record 73.4 million pounds of food in last year’s drive.

“Last year we picked up a little over 2,000 pounds in Richmond County,” said Debbie Rohleder of Our Daily Bread.

The drive is held on the second Saturday in May in more than 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

This is the second year for Richmond County. The Rockingham Post Office will be sending out post cards to advise residents of the upcoming event.

“We will send out the post cards on Wednesday or Thursday before the event takes place,” said Postmaster Brian Frazier.

The post office will deliver the cards to every address.

“We don’t send the cards out too early, this way no one will forget the event is near,” Frazier said.

Residents can place their items on or in the mailbox, and this way the local carriers will take the items back to the post office.

“You can even hang them on the mailbox,” said Frazier.

Donations from this year’s drive are expected to push the overall total since the annual drive began 18 years ago to over one billion pounds. The current total is 982.7 million pounds.

“This has been a tough time for the county, the mail carriers work very hard and take the time to get the food back to make sure that they are caring for others,” Rohleder said. “Postal workers should be commended for what they do.”

“Last year the we had five or six truck loads that were picked up,” said Judy Magnum, supervisor of the Rockingham Post Office. “The food items will be picked up by the local food bank which is Our Daily Bread Ministries and distributed throughout the community.

“Any food drive is greatly needed in our county,” said Michelle Parrish, executive director of United Way of Richmond County. “We are seeing increased numbers with need in the community from the United Ways first quarter reports.”

Residents also have the option of bringing the items directly to the post office. The event will last all day long. For more information you can log on to the NALC Web site at www.nalc.org.

Hollie Nivens can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or by e-mailing at hnivens@yourdailyjournal.com.