BUFFALO - Catalogs at Christmastime. The unconvincing “Don't worry, he won't bite!” from the owner of a snarling dog. That “neither rain, nor sleet ... ” business. Maybe mail carriers are just gluttons for punishment.

Now they want people to add upward of 100 million pounds to their load May 12. That's the day of the National Association of Letter Carriers' annual food drive, the biggest single-day drive in the nation.

“I don't think any carrier would sugarcoat it and tell you it's a fun day,” said carrier Nicole Novosat, who coordinates the drive in Buffalo. But worth it, she said, to see the boxes and cans piled high in food pantries after carriers collect the goods along their routes while delivering the mail.

Novosat's Buffalo-Western New York branch is the one to beat in the friendly rivalries that spring up among carrier divisions. The Buffalo branch has been the top collector for the past four years, last year hauling in 1.9 million pounds, just beating West Coast Florida.

“I get just as many comments from people looking to knock us off the top as areas calling me up asking, 'How do you guys do it?' 'What can we do differently?”' Novosat said.

There really is no secret strategy, she said. “For some reason, western New York, when it comes to charity, this area is just phenomenal.”

Al Friedman's Clearwater, Fla., branch came in fourth in 2006, and said it's the less affluent communities that tend give the most.

“They know what it's like to be hungry. They may have been there,” he said. Florida carriers distribute grocery bags from the Publix supermarket chain to every household in advance as a reminder to fill them and leave them by the mailbox. The state led all others in donations last year.

“There's not a better sight than getting out on Saturday morning and every mailbox has a bag hanging from it,” Friedman said. “It's just breathtaking.”

The carriers collected nearly 70.5 million pounds of food in last year's Stamp Out Hunger drive, just short of 2005's record 71.3 million pounds.

The drive is done in the spring so pantries can stock up in advance of the summer rush that comes with the end of school breakfast and lunch programs, said Drew Von Bergen, the food drive's national coordinator. The food stays in the areas where it's collected.

“Without them we'd have to scurry a lot more,” said Lori Stachowiak of the Food Bank of Western New York.

That the drive often falls the day before Mother's Day, one of the busiest mail delivery days, doesn't win him points among carriers, Von Bergen concedes, but he's still pushing for 100 million pounds this year.

“They're tired, they're sore, it's a rough day ... but there's a great deal of satisfaction when it's over that they've done a lot of good in the community,” he said.

On the Net

Postal food drive: http://www.nalc.org/commun/foodrive/