ASHLAND — Two unrelated events that always fall on the Saturday before Mother’s Day have the common goal of helping to feed the hungry by donating thousands of pounds of food to area non-profit agencies that serve the needy.

 One will be the 18th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Area residents can donate nonperishable goods — canned fruits, soups and vegetables and boxed cereals, pasta and the like — to area non-profit agencies by leaving their donation near their mailboxes to be picked up by letter carriers as they travel their regular routes Saturday.

The other event is the sixth annual Donkey Derby, co-sponsored by the Ashland Parks and Recreation Department and the Ashland Visitors and Convention Bureau in Central Park.

Those attending the six donkey races use canned and boxed food to make wagers on their favorite jockeys. Thus, the event annually succeeds in collecting several hundred pounds of food for the hungry, said Amber Berry, administrator for the city’s parks and recreation department.

River Cities Harvest is charged with distributing the donated food for both events.

Jim Fout of River Cities Harvest coordinates the distribution of food picked up by Boyd County letter carriers. The postal workers bring the donated food to a central location where it is immediately given to a non-profit agency. Typically, Boyd County residents donate between 13,000 and 14,000 pounds of food during the one-day Stamp Out Hunger drive.

Nationwide, Stamp Out Hunger is the nation’s largest one-day food drive. In 2009,  a record 73.4 million pounds of food was collected by letter carriers in more than the 10,000 communities in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

In Boyd County, the food is donated to the Community Kitchen, the Shelter of Hope, the Salvation Army, Safe Harbor, the Boyd County Food Pantry at the Cannonsburg-Trinity United Methodist Church and the Ashland Group Home.

River Cities Harvest volunteers will begin accepting food from postal workers about 10:30 a.m. Saturday and will continue to do so until 5 p.m., Fout said.

Postal workers will take any food brought in after 5 p.m. to the Ashland Post Office, where Fout said Charlie Rice and he will pick it up on Monday. “It usually is more than a thousand pounds of food that is brought in late,” he said.

Food collected by letter carriers in Greenup County will be given to Helping Hands in Greenup, the only countywide agency that serves the needy.

Helping Hands usually receives between 5,500 and 6,500 pounds of food through the Stamp Out Hunger drive, said Sonja Dummitt, a case manager of the agency. “It easily is our biggest single donation of food each year, and it helps us immensely,” she said.

The only Greenup County post office that does not give its food donations to Helping Hands is South Shore, said Dummitt. South Shore distributes its donations through local churches and agencies.

While watching the donkeys race as the volunteer jockeys struggle to keep astride them, those attending Saturday’s Donkey Derby also will hear some classical music. Preceding the first race at noon, the Huntington Symphonic Band will perform a free concert in the park beginning at 11 a.m.

Sue Dowdy, executive director of the Ashland Visitors and Convention Bureau, called the Donkey Derby “a real hoot to watch.” Instead of racing toward the finish line, the donkeys spend much of their time trying to rid themselves of the riders on their backs, she said.

“A lot of jockeys get thrown off, and it is just a lot of fun to watch,” Dowdy said. “This is something the whole family can enjoy.”

The donkeys are supplied by Buckeye Donkey Ball of Columbus, Ohio, said Berry. The annual derby was a favorite activity of the late Bruce Craft, the long time director of parks and recreation, said Berry. There will be five preliminary races with the winning donkeys and jockeys qualifying for a sixth race for the grand championship. The typical wager is “one can of food per jockey,” Berry said.

Randy Yohe of WSAZ will be the emcee for the races for the second straight year, and the TV station usually convinces several of its younger reporters to be jockeys, Dowdy said.

Lucy Davis, coordinator for River Cities Harvest, encouraged local residents to support both the Stamp Out Hunger and the Donkey Derby.

“Our donations were down a little bit,” Davis said of last year’s Stamp Out Hunger campaign in Boyd County.

“We really can’t afford that to happen this year. With the economy the way it is, the needs keep increasing,” she said. “This is a very giving community and our agencies get a lot of help during Thanksgiving and Christmas, but this is a slow time of the year and some of our agencies are really struggling to meet the needs of the poor. We need a good campaign Saturday.”

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2649.