Get a blue bag from your mail carrier? Fill it with food Saturday for the Food Bank

Have an extra jar of peanut butter or cans of fruit in your pantry? Now is a chance to donate to the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri by putting these at your mailbox.

Mail carriers throughout the U.S. will participate Saturday in the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger event. Blue bags and envelopes for monetary donations already should be at residences, the Food Bank said in a news release. Monetary donations can be mailed in, placed in with the food bags or left in the mailbox.

Most needed items are peanut butter, canned meat, canned fruits and vegetables, whole-grain cereal, rice, beans, and boxed meal helpers. Do not put frozen or other perishable items, homemade or home-canned goods or items packaged in glass in the donation bags.

Donations will be picked up Saturday during a mail carrier's route.

While any and all donations are welcomed, the Food Bank is able to do the most with monetary donations. Every $1 donation equals four meals for its patrons.

The Food Bank services 32 counties, has 145 partner agencies, 200 school partners and distributes the equivalent of 22 million meals annually. The National Association of Letter Carriers annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive was started in 1993 and is now the nation's largest one-day food drive, the Food Bank said in the release.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Letter carrier association, Food Bank partner of one-day collection