We encourage everyone to take part today in the Annual Letter Carriers Food Drive to benefit the Bogalusa Help Center. All you have to do is put one or more canned or otherwise non-perishable food items in a bag near your mailbox for delivery to the local food bank.

We should all take care of our own, and there are babies, children, disabled, and old people who are hungry. Help Center Director Gene Hayman said the food bank currently feeds 400 families a month, and that their average income level is only $12,000 a year. He said the Help Center turns nobody away.

If you are able, just buy two of each non-perishable item you’re getting at the grocery. But the odds are that you won’t even have to purchase the food you give to the Help Center via the mailmen and women. Just clean out your pantry. Pass on the things that will hit their expiration dates before you might get around to using them. Somebody will surely be thankful for your gift. That gratitude will reflect on the faces of the needy, Hayman said. It’s expressed in their smiles, he said.

And if you’re reading this on Sunday, you can go by the Help Center any Wednesday morning to donate.