Letter carriers exercise every day but Saturday they were doing even more lifting.

"You just don't think about it because this is just one day out of the year and it just makes you feel like you're helping," said Anna Hinzman, a Marietta letter carrier.

Marietta residents set 16,000 pounds of non-perishable food and toiletry items beside their mailboxes for letter carriers to give to local food pantries.

"Just to help the hungry cause the food banks are depleted right now. Christmas and Thanksgiving is over and this is the time kids will be getting out of school," said John Harding, president of the Marietta branch 154 of the National Association of Letter Carriers and a letter carrier.

Customers aren't the only ones giving.

"You know the letter carriers the one who is there when someone's fallen and can't get up. We do things like that people don't hear about," said Harding.

"They see us, they know us. The only thing funny that really happens is when they see a volunteer out there picking up the food instead of the carrier, some of the customers get a little riled up," he said.

But he says there's no need to worry. About 20 volunteers picked up food before carriers got there to help lighten their load.

"I'm retired and I still continue to come up here and help them out with the food drive because I think it's a very worthwhile thing and more and more people are needing help," said Frank Wallace, a retired Parkersburg letter carrier.

The price of food and gasoline aren't the only prices that have risen. Starting Monday it'll cost .42 to mail a letter.

Still postal workers and the community are working together to lighten everyone's loads.

The Marietta branch is still waiting to hear how much food McConnelsville carriers gathered. So far their down 5,000 pounds this year.

In West Virginia, Branch 481 of the National Association of Letter Carriers collected 44,000 pounds of food.

This branch covers Parkersburg, Vienna, Williamstown, St. Marys, Sistersville, Ravenswood, New Martinsville, and Paden City.

This is down 16,000 pounds from last year. Some organizers say the economy could be to blame while others say it might not be.