MARYSVILLE — The Marysville Post Office thanked the area community for giving so generously to the May 8 “Stamp Out Hunger” letter carriers’ food drive.

Marysville residents donated 32,300 pounds of food, which will provide an estimated 24,846 meals to support the needy and the hungry.

All the food collected goes to local community food banks, who in turn serve hungry children, the elderly, families and the disadvantaged throughout the year. Each 1.3 pounds of donated food equates to one meal for the hungry, according to food bank officials.

“Our Marysville community and postal customers really delivered to help stamp out hunger,” Marysville Postmaster Delana Duncan said. “All that food will help out those who most need it, and with many people still hurting with the tough economy, thanks to you, they will not go hungry. We thank our community and postal customers for their giving, and our letter carriers and volunteers who worked so hard to make the drive a huge success.”

This was the 18th year of the one-day National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive across America. With this year’s total nationwide still being counted, more than 1 billion pounds of food have been given to feed America’s hungry since the postal food drive first started in 1993. Marysville was one of more than 10,000 communities and Post Offices nationwide participating this year.

It’s estimated that the letter carriers’ food drive again collected more than 70 million pounds nationwide to support America’s hungry this year. Last year’s U.S. total was a record 73.4 million pounds.