Mark originally comes from Anchorage, AK where he was an accountant for Duty Free which represented duty-free shops (or stores) which are retail outlets whose goods are exempt from payment of certain local or national taxes and duties. I have seen many of these shops while traveling, either in the airports and in the ports where cruise ships land. This career allowed Mark to be able to travel the world in his younger years. He also worked as an accountant for Safeway, Longs Drugstores and Williams Sonoma.

While still living in Alaska Mark, as a teenager, was a bit of a celebrity working on a local TV show called “The Mother Moose Show”. He was known as Magical Matanuska Mark. He had a seven-minute segment where he did magic tricks. Realizing that show biz was not going to pay the bills, he decided on going to school to learn accounting.

After working for years and establishing himself, Mark met Lisa on eHarmony and the two of them were working and living in the Bay Area, Mark as an accountant and Lisa as a schoolteacher.

After traveling together and finding Chapala, the two of them decided to retire early and move here. Mark retired a bit before Lisa, but she is currently retired as well and enjoying life here at Lakeside.

We all know that retirement is great but spending three years painting, reading, playing, etc. just was not enough anymore so Lisa applied to be a volunteer for FoodBank Lakeside. She has taken up the challenge of being the person to pick-up cash donations for the Foodbank. As many of us don’t really like using PayPal because of the extra cost involved Lisa decided she would be happy to drive around Chapala to pick up cash donations. To have Lisa come by and pick up your donation you can contact her through the foodbank at the following email address: FBLcashdonor@gmail.com. Lisa will happily come by anytime and pick up your donations of financial support for FoodBank Lakeside.

While getting to know Lisa some of the board members were learning about Mark, the retired accountant who shared Lisa’s desire to do more in retirement than just paint and play. They approached Mark to see if he could set-up a professional accounting system for the foodbank and he jumped at the chance. Not only is he providing the software, but he has taken on the big job of getting our manual system entered into the automated computer system called APLOS.

FoodBank Lakeside started less than a year ago with three women putting their heads together to see how they could help this community during the lockdown. They came up with FoodBank Lakeside which has grown in less than a year to serve over 700 families a month. This has been accomplished with the hard work of people like Lisa and Mark who donate time and knowledge to our organization to help it grow. We can’t do this without our volunteers or without you.

FoodBank Lakeside receives funding from individuals from all over the world. Ninety-five percent of your donation goes to feeding families. Just $18 USD, or $23.00 CAD or $370 MXN pesos can help feed an average family of four for a month.