Today's yearly National Postal Carriers Food Drive is the most important food drive of the year for the Food Bank of Nevada County.

Supplies at the food bank - which provides staples such as bread, pasta, rice and canned goods for 1,460 families every month - run low this time of year. Volunteers there are hoping to build up their supplies to last through the end of the year, Executive Director Toni Thompson said.

"One-hundred percent of donations goes to buy food," Thompson said.

Food Bank volunteers are asking residents to place nonperishable items at nearby mailboxes (not in them) for pickup today.

Checks can be made out to the Food Bank of Nevada County and mailed to 578 Sutton Way, #187, Grass Valley, CA 95945.

"We take the food up to North San Juan, to Penn Valley, to the Veterans Building in Grass Valley, to the town of Washington and Truckee," Thompson said.

This summer, the Food Bank also will continue its children's feeding project and nutrition education outreach, thanks to a $36,000 grant received from the California Association of Food Banks.

Volunteers take lunches to local parks and low-income apartment complexes, where children often are left by working parents who cannot afford child care or good food.

"We serve about 700 lunches during the summer months," Thompson said.

This year, the program starts June 9. Donations for that program can be made by noting "Project Hope" in the check's memo line.