Photo by KELLY FARRELL

Marco Island Post Office crew helps deliver more than 16 tons of food after the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Food drive coordinator Elliott Mascoop said more food is being collected through about May 18.

MARCO ISLAND — During this especially challenging economic time, area food banks and homeless shelters need our help even more than usual, so thank you Marco Island residents and visitors for stepping up to the plate and contributing more than 32,600 pounds of non-perishable food for the 17th Annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

This past Saturday, we asked you to make this year better than last and you did. Boy did you ever and clearly beating last year’s food total of 24,750 pounds.

Marco Island letter carriers as well as hard working volunteers tirelessly collected food all around the Island in the heat of the midday sun. Additional volunteers then sorted the donations at the post office loading dock which were picked up through-out the day and distributed to Collier Harvest, St. Matthew’s House and the Chokoloskee, Everglades City and Copeland area non profit organizations.

We want to once again thank local area houses of worship for their efforts as well as condominium residents for all their extra food donations over the past two months. Let’s do it again next year!

If you want to learn more about hunger and homelessness in Collier County, go to collierharvest.org or collierhomelesscoalition.org.

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