During the past several weeks, the Albany Post Office has been promoting the Letter Carrier’s annual effort of collecting food throughout the county in order to supply people in need, known nationally as Stamp Out Hunger.

This past Saturday, mail patrons were asked to leave canned and non-perishable food goods near postal boxes to be collected by mail carriers from the Albany Post Office, and the effort was a tremendous success.

Monday morning, May 13, 2013, postal employees helped load more than 1,600 pounds of donated food items into Bobby Grant’s pickup truck. Grant’s ministry, Good Shepherd of Hope, expressed his thanks to the postal employees as well as the county for donating to this cause.

Good Shepherd of Hope Ministries is a charity founded by Grant after he retired from ministering a couple of years ago.

Grant said the food will go to local people who need it and he was overwhelmed by the amount of items collected by the post office.

In the top photo Albany Postmaster Mike Staton, left, and rural route carrier John Washburn load the collected food items Monday morning into Grant’s truck. At bottom left, Grant is shown handing Washburn one of the baskets of food collected this past Saturday.

An additional photo from Monday’s food transfer efforts can be found on page 9.