King County postal customers broke records as they donated more than 890,750 pounds of food to Food Lifeline during the 17th Annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. The May 9 event was held in cooperation with the National Association of Letter Carriers.

The food gathered by the local letter carriers is enough to provide more than 700,000 meals for hungry people in Western Washington. The food comes at a time when the need has increased as a result of the weak economy and food banks are struggling to keep their shelves full enough to fill this need.

Every year, letter carriers distribute bags in participating postal branches nationwide for customers to fill with food for their neighbors in need. On the second Saturday in May, the food is collected from mailboxes and sorted for distribution to local food banks.

Trucks were waiting at each postal station to be filled with the bags of food the letter carriers collected on their routes, and more than 200 participating volunteers helped to unload them.

This year, many postal stations noted increases of 20 to 30 percent over last year’s food donation totals, with one postal station collecting 60 percent more.