Hawai'i residents responded in a record way today to an annual food drive organized by postal workers.

Letter carriers on O'ahu collected a "huge amount" of food donations during the National Association of Letter Carriers drive, said Adele Yoshikawa, a spokeswoman for the group.

Although official collection totals were not available tonight, the carriers picked up "far more than any year in the past," Yoshikawa said.

"The drivers said they found donated food this year at many homes that had not participated in the past," she said.

Volunteers tonight were still sorting the thousands of canned good contributions which will be distributed by the Hawai'i Foodbank to needy families across the state.

"In the past, we were usually done by early evening; this year, we're going to be working well into the night to count and organize the food," Yoshikawa said.

The letter carriers' effort helps almost single-handedly sustain the Foodbank stocks during the summer, when children are out of school and not receiving meals in the schools, said Lynn Chang, a spokesoman for the Aloha United Way.