DADE CITY, Fla. — Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano said hundreds of pounds of food and $2,000 were collected by his office during just the first two days of a drive to benefit US Coast Guard members and their families.

The Coast Guard is one of the agencies whose workers are not receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown.

“It’s a sad situation because these are the people who are putting their lives on the line everyday — securing our borders, protecting us, going out when people are in distress in the Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Fasano. “They’re putting their lives on the line protecting our shores, and yet, they’re not getting paid for that.”

Collecting donations for good causes is part of business as usual at the Pasco Tax Collector Offices. Each month, the office picks a different charitable organization. Customers leave change or whatever money they can spare in canisters at service counters.

Fasano said during the past five years, they’ve helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes across the county.

This time around, it was actually an organization, the non-profit U.S. Coast Guard Mom In Need Fund, that approached him and asked to partner on the drive. According to Fasano, donors haven’t just been people who’ve needed to visit one of his offices.

“We had a gentleman come to our tax collector office in Wesley Chapel yesterday – Vietnam vet, a wonderful man. He brought in five bags of food,” Fasano said. “A customer came up from Pinellas County when she heard that we were doing this. She came up almost the next day from Pinellas County, brought ten bags of food.”

Fasano said there are stories like that from each of his offices. At Gulf Harbors, someone left a $100 check. A woman came into the Land O’ Lakes office and donated two Publix gift cards she said she’d won at work.

“I am so elated that people care. I am so happy that communities are pulling together for these guys and helping every way that they can because they just don’t have the option to go get another job,” said Tina Chan.

Chan is with the Mom In Need Fund. She’s also a Coast Guard mom. Her son, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Steven Fairchild, just moved to Honolulu for his job with the Coast Guard. When he arrived about two weeks ago, he got an unpleasant surprise.

“He goes to pay for his hotel room with his government credit card, and guess what? It doesn’t work,” Chan said.

Chan said her son has had to pay for all of his expenses out of pocket. That’s included $60 a day in Uber fees, since he didn’t have access to a car immediately after his move to Hawaii.

While her son is far away, Chan said she wanted to do something to help families here in Tampa Bay.

The board of the USCG Mom In Need Fund decided last week to donate $15,000 to the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance Fund.

Chan said that gets money directly into the hands of families and individuals in the Coast Guard affected by the shutdown that doesn’t have to be paid back until after their paychecks start coming in. She also reached out to Fasano about the food and cash drive on Tuesday. The collection began the next day.

“There are families in this area that they don’t have food, and they’re trying to save every penny they do have because they have no idea when they’re going to get paid again,” Chan said.

Chan said her son is actually one of the luckier ones since he joined the Coast Guard nine years ago.

“He did have a little bit of a nest egg saved up, which is good, but it won’t last long,” she said.

She said many younger members don’t have those savings. Chan said it’s imperative that Senate bill S.21, the Pay Our Coast Guard Act, gets passed as soon as possible.

“It’s not a political issue. It’s a humanity issue,” she said. “So these people can get paid and move on with their lives. They don’t have a choice in going to work. If the rest of the world had to get up and go to work everyday and they weren’t being paid, how would you get there? How would you pay for gas?”

Fasano said his office plans to make its first delivery to the US Coast Guard in Clearwater Tuesday. People can still drop off donations through the end of the month.