Donations and food drives on Marco Island made for a special distribution by Our Daily Bread Food Pantry the Saturday before Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah.
Turkeys, chickens and cereal – all rare treats with the current cost of living – were on the distribution list on Dec. 21, said food pantry Executive Director Evelyn Rossetti-Ryan.
“We picked up 1,200 6-pound chickens so every family gets a chicken or small turkey for Christmas dinner,” she said. “At 7 a.m., there was a line of cars around the block. We opened earlier (by 8:30). By 9 a.m., we served over 300 households.”
Winn-Dixie, a board member, St. Mark’s help
” Winn-Dixie brokered an affordable price for us and a volunteer/board member paid for the chickens,” Rossetti-Ryan said.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church recently held a cereal drive that gave the food pantry 703 boxes of cereal to add to the food distributed Saturday, she said.
Our Daily Bread serves more than 1,000 families in Collier County on an average Saturday and another 1,000 with deliveries, pickups and school distribution throughout the week, Rossetti-Ryan said.