Students and community members have the opportunity to "stamp out hunger" in the largest one-day food drive in the nation.

The 11th annual Stamp out Hunger food drive, sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, will take place May 10 in Bellefonte and State College.

As part of the Trash to Treasure program, the food drive will collect unopened, nonperishable items that will not expire in the near future.

Rita Snyder, food drive coordinator at the Bellefonte Post office, has headed the drive for the past six years.

"This food drive adds up to about one-half of what the food bank gathers all year," Snyder said.

Bellefonte and State College gather and donate about 29,000 pounds of food each year.

The 20,000 pounds collected in State College go directly to the State College Food Bank, she added.

On- and off-duty postal workers are called upon to help out with the food drive, collecting donations on their normal postal routes.

This year, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will help by picking up donations outside of homes, Snyder said of the donations.

Numerous drop-off points will be located across campus for students to donate, Pat Coble, State College Area Food Bank director, said.

"Penn State students are an important part of this operation," Coble said.

With summer drawing near and students moving in and out of dorms and apartments, it's the perfect opportunity to make a generous donation, Coble said.

"Just from students alone we collected 6,000 pounds of food," Coble said of the collection.

"Fraternities and sororities help out a lot also with all the sorting we do on a regular basis. ... With just a little help, we can really do an enormous amount of work"

The food bank will have four or five volunteers working with the normal day-to-day staff for this event.

The food drive May 10 is a nationwide collection, in which contributions will be donated to food banks across the country, Coble said.

Most of the food will be sorted and stored.

Snack foods such as popcorn and Spaghettios will be to given to daycare centers such as the Park Forest Day Nursery, a low-income daycare facility.

"This year's food drive is very timely," Snyder said.

"Considering the Corning Inc. plant in State College is closing, thousands of workers are going to lose their jobs," she said.

These people may depend on the food bank, she said.