Linn Benton Food Share is getting ready for its biggest donation day of the year, and director Mike Gibson says the need has never been greater.

With higher food and fuel prices, and donations from government and retail sources falling off, Gibson looks to Saturday’s annual food drive in conjunction with postal carriers as vital.

“Price increases hit low-income families and individuals disproportionately,” he said. “What the postal carriers do for us is our biggest event all year.”

Carriers will be picking up bags of nonperishable foods from their mail route customers on Saturday.

“It’s extra work but it’s something they enjoy doing,” said Susan James, the volunteer coordinator for the food share.

The drive is expected to bring in between 70,000 and 85,000 pounds of food.

Gibson pointed out that it’s not just gas and food costs that have hurt donations; distribution of government commodities has dropped 50 percent in the last two years.

All together the mid-valley food bank distributed 5 million pounds in 2006.

“This year we will be under that, probably around 4.7 million,” Gibson said.

The community has come through to help make up for some of the cuts. Fred Meyer, Albertson’s and Ray’s contribute fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy products through the Food Rescue Program. He also said the food bank gets good prices buying staples in bulk.

“Most of our donations come from stores,” Gibson said, but the program does rely heavily on volunteers and those contributions haven’t dwindled significantly.

“Actually we were a little surprised that the rising gas costs haven’t hurt our volunteer numbers,” James said. “I think it shows how much people here are concerned about their neighbors.”

Postal carriers will drop their gathered donations at the Albany Post Office and the Linn Benton Food Share parking lot in Corvallis.

Bratton Trucking is donating trucks to take the collected donations to the food bank’s Tangent warehouse.

Also helping is a Samaritan Health Services food drive. Medical facilities in Linn and Benton counties are accepting canned goods and other nonperishable foods throughout May, hoping to gather 40,000 pounds of food for the program.

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