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By Barry Gwinn
Liz Pecora and Vicki Johnson showed up at our last town meeting (Nov. 15) to address the Goodland Civic Association (GCA) membership. Pecora’s husband, Donald, has long been active in the Goodland community. Pecora and Johnson came by to enlist support for Our Daily Bread Food Pantry at the Family Baptist Church (FBC) in Marco. The FBC is one of nine island churches supporting this effort and is running it out of their church on Winterberry Drive. “Last winter, after researching the problem, we determined to open a food pantry on Marco Island,” said Johnson, “We found that locally, about 39% of our elementary school children were in a free or subsidized breakfast and lunch program. When school is out for summer, the children no longer receive subsidized food. Additionally many of the jobs for their parents go away for the summer. Some of our families must choose between paying for rent, utilities, medicine, or food.” Johnson found that there were no food pantries serving this demographic between Everglades City, Airport Road and I-75. Presenting their research, Pecora and

The Food Pantry has been up and running since January 2016, and is picking up steam. “From zero guests in January, we now serve an average of 600 a month,” says Johnson, “So far this year, we have served approximately 2,900 people in 683 families who live and work [on the island]. About 75% of these guests are Spanish speaking. We are constantly getting new families.” But to keep all this going takes volunteers. “There is always a need for volunteers,” says Johnson, “We need 20 volunteers just for [the] day the pantry

For those wishing to help, The Food Pantry is located at and managed by the Family Baptist Church, 1450 Winterberry Drive, Marco Island in the small education building. Telephone: 239-394-1646, x225. Website: fbcmarco.com/ministries/benevolence-foodpantry. Email OurDailyBread@fbcmarco.com or email Liz Pecora directly at liz@fbcmarco.com. She’ll be glad to hear from you.
Barry was a practicing attorney before he worked as a Special Agent of the FBI for 31 years. Barry worked for several government agencies another ten years before retiring to Goodland in 2006. Barry is presently the Secretary of the Goodland Civic Association.
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