Lacey Coe understands two things for certain: the power of food and importance of community.
Coe, 25, runs Lacey’s Place, a food truck that until recently operated entirely on donations – and fed much of Horseshoe Beach after Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton stormed through the small, coastal community along Florida’s Big Bend over the past 15 months.
While relief efforts have been both massive and slow – with county waste crews still collecting debris, and waterlogged plywood still lining the cattle break – residents and volunteers continue to turn to Coe to satisfy their hunger for food and quest for community.
“There is no better people than Lacey Coe,” said Donnie Ownby, pastor of First Baptist Church, which lost an entire wall to Helene only three weeks after its building on County Road 351 had finally been restored after damage from Idalia in August 2023.
Ownby knows about making a difference in a community at a young age. He’s been a pastor since he was 19, serving in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee most of his life. Searching for a coastline and some relaxation, he moved to Horseshoe a week before Idalia struck.
Saying he’s grateful for Coe and her generosity, Ownby said, “Watching the Lord move among the people is an amazing thing.”
Recently, the pastor and his wife Lisa Ownby grabbed lunch at Lacey’s Place after contemplating their choices: a chicken or shrimp basket, a hamburger or cheeseburger, or a chicken sandwich. As at any good Southern restaurant, sweet tea sat ready to be poured.
“I’ve always loved to cook, and then I’ve always loved people. So you put them together – and it brings everybody together.”Lacey Coe
Lacey’s Place isn’t Coe’s first time cooking for the community. It started at the blue house she and her siblings grew up in. Her parents bought it in 1992, a year before the “storm of the century” struck the gulf coast of Florida in March 1993.
Assured their home had survived Idalia, Coe, who was six months pregnant with her fourth child, and her husband Ridge Coe, 31, who works with a contracting company, bought $700 worth of food from area grocery stores and got to cooking.
“I’ve always loved to cook, and then I’ve always loved people,” she said. “So you put them together – and it brings everybody together.”
Coe kept cooking for the community until days before welcoming a new daughter, Carley, to the world last December.
The town noticed. In June, the townsfolk implored Coe to find a food truck, and that they would buy it. Today, that truck is on a plot of land on Fifth Avenue West, donated by a local resident.
Even people who came from elsewhere to help with the cleanup have appreciated the generosity.
“After our long hard day, it was nice to go and get together and have that fellowship – and get a good meal,” Greg Brown, 52, an Orlando resident, said while outside the food truck. “Just kind of take your mind off of what you’re dealing with every day.”
Coe’s family roots in Horseshoe and the surrounding region date back over 90 years. Her father, Chris Gillette, 51, recalled volunteering with his wife Selena Gillette, 49, during their earlier years together, with hurricane recovery efforts on the east coast of Florida and in Louisiana.
Gillette, who owns a construction company, said Coe’s and her siblings’ giving nature “is kind of a good present to receive after this kind of devastation to this community.”
With about 175 homes having been lost to Idalia and Helene, many Horseshoe residents appreciate that Lacey’s Place offers a spot to unwind and socialize.
With the help from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Coe was able to get her food truck operating without the need for a license – something the state does after a natural disaster to keep people fed during recovery efforts.
Coe soon hopes to have a permanent spot for Lacey’s Place – perhaps even a restaurant. For now, though, she has no plans to leave Horseshoe and is grateful for what she has and gives.
“It was a very emotional moment realizing, ‘Hey, your dream is coming true,’” she said of opening the food truck. “‘You get to do something you’ve always wanted to.’”
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