ALPENA — U.S. Postal Service letter carriers have to carry a lot of weight when delivering mail, but earlier this month they had to carry a whole lot more weight thanks to public food donations.

Alpena Post Office Postmaster Rob Gross said letter carriers collected and hauled approximately 9,000 pounds in food donations from Alpena residents during the 25th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

The public was asked to leave non-perishable food near their letter boxes on a certain day for collection by the carriers and volunteers. The food was hauled back to the post office and then sorted at the end of the day, Gross said.

According to Gross, carriers would make caches of food on sidewalks from homes. Those caches then would be collected by volunteers who patrolled neighborhoods in vehicles.

“We collected 9,000 pounds and combined with Rogers City I think the total was right around 10,900 pounds of food,” he said. “We were up from the last two years, but it wasn’t our best year.”

According to statistics, this is down from last year’s collection amount of more than 13,000 pounds of food.

All the food will be redistributed to the needy locally, Gross said. Those receiving the donations included the Beaver Lake Community Church, St. Bernard’s Friendship Room, Trinity Episcopal Church, St. Vincent de Paul, Under the Wings Christian Fellowship, Sunrise Mission and The Salvation Army.

Gross said members of those organizations came to the post office to lend a hand sorting the food. He said the volunteers were organized by former letter carrier Rich Donokowski. He said there were more than 20 volunteers who worked on the project.

Gross said although it is a lot of extra work for the letter carriers, he said it was heartening to see the public be so generous with donations.

“The public is helping out their own because everything stays local,” he said. “It’s just an awesome feeling that people care about each other in our community. We do it all voluntarily. Even the carriers, they go out out and stay after work on their own time.”

Gross said he hopes the donation amount can be increased next year.

“It’s important for the public to know that their stuff was donated locally,” he said. “Maybe those people who were not sure if they wanted to do it, they will do it next year knowing that.”

Jason Ogden can be reached via email at jogden@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693. Follow Jason on Twitter @jo_alpenanews.