Next Saturday, mail carriers with routes in Pittsield, Dalton, Hinsdale and Lanesborough will be doing more than delivering and picking up mail.

Letter carriers will be collecting non-perishable donations for a food drive conducted by local branch No. 286 of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service and Berkshire United Way, on May 8. Donations will be distributed later to a number of local food pantries by volunteers from Berkshire United Way, Berkshire Community Action Council and Berkshire Youth United.

The NALC "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive is held nationwide and is the largest one-day food drive in the country. According to NALC, last year 73.4 million pounds of non-perishable donations were collected across the country, and this year the NALC expects to reach a record one billion pounds collected since the drive's inception in 1993.

The drive is held annually 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.

Residents interested in donating food should put their non-perishable items in bags and leave them by their mailbox.

For more information visit www.berkshireunitedway.org. or www.nalc.org/commun/foodrive/