Nearly 15 tons of food was collected for local pantries earlier this month.

The United Way of Forsyth County again joined with the Cumming Post Office to participate in the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out the Hunger Drive.

Melissa Corliss, an organizer with United Way, said postal customers were invited to leave bags of nonperishable food items by their mailboxes or at the Cumming Post Office between May 13-14.

Ann Burger, postmaster, said after all the donations came in, she weighed them and the total came up to “just shy of 30,000 pounds.”

“Just to help you visualize it, if you can picture a two-car garage, it was enough food to fill it completely up all the way to the ceiling,” Burger said.

Corliss said the organizations receiving the food “were so pleased.”

“They were all just so thankful because with summer coming up there’s a lot more need when kids are out of school,” Corliss said.

Burger said she and her staff helped the food pantries pick up the donations for about three hours May 14.

This year’s level of giving was in line with last year’s, Corliss said, something she and other organizers attributed to fliers placed in mailboxes about a week before the drive.

She said in 2009, when no fliers were distributed, just one ton of food came in.

Burger said while taking time to pick up the bags of food can be challenging, her employees were pleased with the results.

“They all understand and are all gracious about it,” Burger said. “They were all really thrilled people put so much out.”