Stony Brook University and Island Harvest Bring Food and School Supplies to Long Island Students

Stony Brook University and Island Harvest Bring Food and School Supplies to Long Island Students

STONY BROOK, N.Y., September 10, 2009 — In honor of opening weekend at Stony Brook University, 400 incoming freshman from the Undergraduate College of Leadership and Service hosted Island Harvest, Long Island’s largest hunger relief organization, on Saturday, August 29, 2009. There, the undergraduates prepared nonperishable food packages for Island Harvest’s Weekend Backpack Program, which provides supplemental food to public school students who rely on free or reduced lunch programs during the week, but may not have enough to eat over the weekend. 

Stony Brook students loading completed food packages onto Island Harvest’s truck for distribution throughout Long Island school districts.

While both groups have worked together in the past, this event generated the largest amount of Stony Brook student volunteers for a single Island Harvest operation. In addition to packaging food for students in need across Long Island, Stony Brook University also collected much-needed school supplies for children in recognition of the back-to-school season. Both initiatives highlight Stony Brook University’s efforts to give back to the community through leadership, outreach, and experiential learning. 

Island Harvest delivered unsorted nonperishable food and snack items to the Stony Brook Campus where students assembled packages for the Weekend Backpack Program. The operation took place during Orientation Day. Island Harvest staff members were on hand to assist students with loading the completed food bags into trucks, and provided them with information on how to volunteer with the organization. 

The collaboration with Island Harvest and its Weekend Backpack Program was conceptualized by members of the Career Center (Marianna Savoca, Director; Urszula Zalewski, Career and Volunteer Programs Coordinator; Taryn Kutujian, AmeriCorps VISTA Programs Coordinator), and the Undergraduate College of Leadership and Service (Manual London, Faculty Director; Jonathan Ragone, Quad Director, Melissa Mastrogiovanni and Tamica Shilletto, Residence Hall Directors). On Island Harvest’s end, the principal facilitator of the partnership with Stony Brook University is Joan Flynn, Volunteer and Community Service Manager and Migdalia Otero, Vice President of Programs and Operations. 

For additional information about Island Harvest contact Migdalia Otero at migdalia@islandharvest.org or Joan Flynn at joan@islandharvest.org

About Island Harvest

Fighting hunger and touching lives, Island Harvest serves as the bridge between those who have surplus food and those who need it, supplying hundreds of community-based nonprofit organizations on Long Island with critical food support to help stem the advancing tide of hunger in our communities.  Island Harvest has delivered 57 million pounds of food, supplementing more than 44 million meals, since its inception in 1992.  In support of its mission to end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island, the organization is actively involved in educational and hunger awareness programs to inform the public about the insidious but often unrecognized problem of hunger here, in one of the wealthiest regions of the country, and how individuals, businesses, schools and commercial food establishments can make a difference.  Island Harvest is a member of Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest).  For more information about Island Harvest, visit www.islandharvest.org or call 516-294-8528.

Island Harvest Press Contact:

Don Miller – 516-536-2020 or 516-330-1647 (cell), dmiller@hldpr.com

Photo Caption: Stony Brook students loading completed food packages onto Island Harvest’s truck for distribution throughout Long Island school districts. Over 400 students participated in this event, assembling  2,465 food packages for Island Harvest’s Weekend Backpack Program. Island Harvest provides children in underprivileged school districts with full meals for both Saturday and Sunday in an effort to promote health eating in and out of the classroom.