By Rebekah Dyvig, staff writer

Nearly 49 million Americans face hunger every day. For this reason, the National Association of Letter Carriers is participating in the 20th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive this Saturday.

The Albert Lea Letter Carriers are collecting nonperishable food items to help stock the local food shelves.

Postal customers are asked to place nonperishable food items at or by their mailboxes that morning for the mail carriers to collect during their normal mail delivery time.

Last year the Albert Lea carriers collected nearly 12,078 pounds of food. This was the first time Austin carriers collected more food than Albert Lea.

The trophy is given to the town that collects the most food, said Scott Pirsig, an Albert Lea carrier who coordinates the local drive. It hadn’t traveled since it was started nearly three years ago until last year when Austin collected 32 pounds more food than Albert Lea.

Albert Lea carriers hope to collect more food than Austin this year so they can get the traveling trophy back.

All of the food collected in Albert Lea goes to the local food shelves, which include the Salvation Army, the Ecumenical Food Pantry and St. Theodore’s Loaves & Fishes.