Area residents will be able to leave a special package for their mail carriers Saturday. Postal workers will be collecting canned food on their routes to donate to Outreach Ministries.

It’s the National Association of Letter Carriers’s 23rd annual Letter Carriers Food Drive Day and Brookhaven’s second year participating. Mayor Joe Cox signed a proclamation Monday declaring Saturday Letter Carriers Food Drive Day.

NALC Branch President Alicia Catrett said when letter carriers deliver the mail May 9 they ask residents to leave non-perishable food items at the mail box in a plastic bag. The bags will be picked up and taken to Brookhaven Outreach Ministries located at 101 East Court St.

“The letter carriers are honored to do this because it helps locals shelters put food back in local pantries,” Catrett said.

She said carriers will deliver reminder cards and bags earlier in the week.

Alicia Harris, office manager of Outreach Ministries, said the program was a great asset last year. She said the ministry usually gets food from a food bank in Jackson and from organizations in town that donate.

“We give food to the local community to meet the needs of the needy in our area,” Outreach Ministries President Jerry Durr said.

He said there are a lot of people who are out of work or in other avenues of need who use their services.

“We’re filling the gap and trying to fill that need,” he said.

Durr encourages everybody to donate, saying that drives like this really help the community. Catrett said last year residents in the city of Brookhaven donated 5,000 pounds of food.

“[The food] went right back to our community, and we’re hoping to exceed that this year,” Catrett said.

She said those both city and county residents can participate in the drive.

Letter Carriers’ Food Drive Day is part of NALC’s annual Stamp Out Hunger program.