Local postal workers joined their brethren across the nation in their 17th annual Letter Carriers Food drive last Saturday in collecting non-perishable items while on their daily routes.

The drive benefits local food banks like the Santa Clarita Food Pantry.

More than 45 thousand pounds of food was collected locally, but the Pantry expects to take in an additional 3-4 thousand pounds by the weeks end.

“Sometimes residents forget to put the food out or they miss their letter carrier,” said Belinda Crawford executive director of the SCV Food Pantry.

Crawford says that during the summer months children are out of school and not receiving breakfast and lunch provided by the school, which puts an added strain on the Pantry.

“This is the equivalent of about six weeks worth of distribution and it couldn’t have happened at a better time,” she said.

The roughly 50 tons that is expected to be collected brings the total collection over the years to just over 500 tons. To put that into perspective that’s the equivalent of 83 full grown elephants or roughly 660,000 cans of chicken noodle soup.