Food drive to take place Saturday

Havre and the Hi-Line will be part of a nationwide effort to collect food for area food banks Saturday.

The annual drive by the letter carriers union is designed to bring in more food to the food banks during a traditionally slow part of the year, said Travis Abdallah, spokesman for the Havre union.

This is the 20th year the union has conducted the nation's largest food-collection program in the nation.

People are asked to put nonperishable items near their mailboxes Saturday. Carriers will pick up the donations and bring them to the post office, where food bank officials will sort them and take them to the food bank, he said.

The donations are especially helpful this time of year because contributions are traditionally down during the summer, he said. People tend to donate during the winter when they are in the holiday mood, he said. In the summer, they are often away on vacation.

"But people still need the food in the summer, " he said.

Local letter carriers collect as much as 4,000 pounds of food each year, he said.

"We try to get a little bit more each year. "