On Saturday, May 21, more than 11,500 pounds of food and $380 were donated to the Sequim Food Bank for the 24th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

The amount is just shy of the 12,000 pounds collected last year, but it may come close given donations that still were arriving as of Monday, said Stephen Rosales, Sequim Food Bank board president.

“This (drive) saves us from having to buy a lot of stuff,” he said.

The nonprofit received about $300 worth of peanut butter, which is one of the most valuable and sought after items, along with chili, pasta and canned tuna, chicken, soups and beans.

“We’ll go through that much (peanut butter) in about a month,” he said.

For the past 24 years every Saturday in May letter carriers collect food bank donations from U.S. Postal Service customers countrywide. The annual drive has become the largest one-day food drive in the nation. All of those helping locally, from the postal service employees to Rotarians and members of the both Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church and Olympic View Church of God, were “incredible,” Rosales said.

Averaging 80-100 customers each time it’s open, the Sequim Food Bank provides about 80,000-90,000 pounds of food monthly to those within the Sequim community, Rosales said.

The Sequim Food Bank, 144 W. Alder St, is open three days a week: 1-4 p.m., Mondays, 9 a.m.-noon Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, visit sequimfoodbank.org or call 683-1205.

An upcoming peanut butter drive in Sequim is slated for June 10-12 at Walmart, QFC and Safeway.