PORTLAND, Ore. – If you’re feeling charitable, you can help "stamp out hunger" on Saturday.

“Stamp Out Hunger” is the annual food drive by the Oregon Food Bank and Oregon State Association of Letter Carriers. Postal carriers in Oregon and southwest Washington delivered 1.5 million yellow, biodegradable bags to homes this week.

If you would like to donate, simply fill the bag with non-perishable food – like canned soups, cereal and pasta – and leave it outside for your mail carrier. Items like peanut butter and tuna fish are in high demand for kids, since schools and food pantries need help with their summer lunch programs.

“Nobody raises more food in one day than letter carriers do across the country  by l,” said Kevin Card, the president of the Oregon State Association of Letter Carriers. “It's that one time we can work with our customers to do something really incredible.”

The drive can bring in two million pounds of food for Oregon and southwest Washington; however, donations were down by 18 percent last year. Organizers do not know the reason.

What: Sample a smorgasbord of Japan:

• Try your hand at: origami (paper folding); koto (13 string instrument); and get dressed in a kimono.
• Talk with artists as they display their work: calligraphy, bonsai, and hand made paper with sumi-e (ink wash drawing).
• Watch demonstrations of: ikebana (flower arranging); sushi making (no raw fish); and a tea ceremony.
• Interact with students who went to Saru Island for a watershed exchange, folks who traveled to our sister city Ebetsu, and members of the Mount Hood Community College Japanese Club. 
• Learn about the Portland Japanese Garden (one of the top two Japanese Gardens in the US), and find out about the current restoration of Tsuru Island – Gresham Japanese Garden in Main City Park.
• Talk with author Clarence Mershon who wrote about local Japanese Americans during WW II; learn about the internment of the Japanes Americans, and talk with local folks who experienced that time.
• Finish off the evening with a performance by PSU Taiko Enseble.

When: Monday, May 14 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.