St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Receives Hunger Heroes of Distinction Award

On Friday, December 3, 2021 Reverend Jessica Babcock of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church along with members of the congregation gathered at their parking lot for a double celebration!

‘Tis the season of giving and for this occasion, Rector Reverend Jessica Babcock delivered a check for $5,000 to Our Daily Bread Food Pantry from members of the St. Mark’s congregation. Accepting the check, Liz Pecora, Vice President of ODBFP remarked “we can’t do what we do without the help of our donors, volunteers, and partners like St. Mark’s.”

Our Daily Bread Food Pantry (ODBFP) also took this special moment to recognize St. Mark’s with a Hunger Heroes of Distinction Award for all their support over the years in working to wipe out hunger in the community. As she accepted the plaque, Reverend Babcock remarked  

“I love this partnership because it helps us practice gratitude – we give and share what we don’t need and go and get more of it to keep on giving. It is a way we grow spiritually.”

I sat down with Reverend Babcock and Doug Eichten, a member of the congregation, to learn how this partnership with ODBFP all started. Doug recalled that it started quite a way back by asking members of the congregation that if they have extra food to donate, leave it on the wagon for collection. The members responded generously and every Sunday, they would take the food collection to ODBFP.

The congregation wanted to take the collection up a notch as they knew that the need was growing and ODBFP was trying to catch up with demand from the community. With the help of some members of the congregation, a monthly food drive was started and Eichten was thrilled with the response. It started with about five members and has grown to 12 members now helping out. St. Mark’s just finished with the Thanksgiving Food Drive and now they are starting with the Holiday Food Drive.

According to Eichten, the Thanksgiving Food Drive collected 910 pounds of food, and if they can get an additional 764 pounds of donated food, St. Mark’s will have collected three tons of food for ODBFP for 2021!

Reverend Babcock added that though St. Mark’s is not a big parish its members are very active and very giving, and food is something we can all donate and share. St. Mark’s is a generous parish and kindness is woven into everything they do, and everything they do is made possible by the generous contributions of their faithful members – as stated on their website.

St. Mark’s also share the use of their shed out back. Originally, it was storage for the annual flea market and now they are sharing it with ODBFP since they need offsite storage.

Al’s Pals Mobile Food Pantry also uses the St. Mark’s driveway two Friday’s a month. It started with “can we use the driveway to distribute food” and we are very happy to help. Eichten added that St. Mark’s, located right on Collier Boulevard, is ideal for visibility and accessibility and they can accommodate the long lines of cars.

In Collier County, food pantries are seeing increased demand over the holiday season this year and ODBFP is thankful for its partnerships with St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and their generous members.