KAYSVILLE — Letter carriers here and throughout Davis County are gearing up for the annual National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive which is set for Saturday.

If the response is anything like last year, hundreds of thousands of pounds of food will be donated to aid those in need.

The Kaysville Post Office, which with 15 carriers serves Kaysville and Fruit Heights, collected 116,053 lbs. of donations from patrons, according to the Family Connection Center Food Bank.

“We want to express our appreciation to the employees of the Post Office for doing this, and to our customers and their exceptional outpouring,” said Postmaster Cal Bambrough. “We led the state in donations per capita.

“This community is always one of the very top in terms of food donated per capita,” he said. “That makes it a challenging task for carriers who do a tremendous job, put forth a lot of effort,” Bambrough said. “I am proud of the job they do – for a very good cause.”

Food donated from Centerville south is delivered to the Bountiful Community Food Pantry while donations from communities north of there are taken to the FCC Food Bank in Layton.

Furniss has been in charge of the Kaysville Post Office drive 17 years and this year has recruited help from Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts affiliated with Troop 530.

Residents are asked to place their donation in bags on their doorstep or near their post box. Carriers pick up the donations, in addition to performing their regular mail delivery duties.

Seven fathers with trucks will be paired with their sons to assist letter carriers in getting the food from postal routes to large semi trailers at the Post Office. The semis are donated for the effort through the generosity of various businesses.

With the aid of cell phones, trucks will coordinate pickups from carriers throughout Kaysville and Fruit Heights, on loading food from each carrier and then moving on. Furniss expects the drive to continue until about 4:30 p.m.

“It’s a lot of work,” Furniss said. “If you divide 116,000 lbs. by 15, that’s about 7,700 lbs a piece,” or nearly four tons per carrier.

“I want to thank the community for their great generosity,” Furniss said.

“I hear comments from the carriers that those who appear to be more in need give even more,” Bambough said.

And there are the stories of people in need who were able to receive help thanks to the drive, Furniss said.

There was one instance where food had been dropped off at the Post Office on the Monday following the drive. It amounted to upward of 30 lbs. of food.

“We dropped it on the porch of someone we knew was in need, took it to the family,” Furniss said.

Donations are welcome in the Post Office lobby this Friday if people cannot participate on Saturday, he added. Postal workers are committed to this effort, and try to help those in need by also participating in Sub for Santa, Bambrough said.

The “Bust a Billion” pounds food drive is considered to be the largest in the nation. More than 1,400 post offices will be involved across the country.

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com