Food Pantry Seeking Donations To Help Residents Amid Coronavirus

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — A local food pantry is seeking donations to help Long Island residents during the coronavirus outbreak. Adelante of Suffolk County runs the Food for Thought Pantry, located at Long Island Select Healthcare, Inc. (LISH) on 159 Carleton Avenue in Central Islip, just opened its doors in October 2019, and is now need of food donations to serve its culturally diverse population, which has been particularly hard hit by the virus.

According to the group, the food pantry directly serves local residents who suffer from hunger and food insecurity in the predominately Hispanic and Latino communities of Central Islip and Brentwood, both of which have a reported high number of cases.

As of Thursday, the Town of Islip continues to have the most number of cases in Suffolk County and Brentwood is the hamlet with the most number of cases in the county. There were 8,073 cases of coronavirus reported in the town and Brentwood has a total of 2,800 cases followed by Central Islip with 1,357 positive cases.

"Adelante is providing food and other critical services to those vulnerable communities most in need during this challenging time," Robert S. Budd, CEO, Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, (FREE) said. "The community relies on Adelante and similar organizations as their oasis of hope. I urge anyone who is shopping to add just one or two items to their list and please donate to our food bank."

Food for Thought is currently opened on Thursdays and shoppers must call for an "appointment" so that they can stagger the shoppers and adhere to social distancing. In addition, Adelante is currently home delivering lunches each day to about 45 senior citizens who usually attend Adelante’s Senior Nutrition Program in Brentwood which has closed due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The program for seniors also offers healthy nutrition, recreation and health care with lunch, zumba classes, workshops, transportation, mail translations, doctor appointments, among others services. However, due to the pandemic, the nonprofit is forced to "reinvent" its services.

Those who wish to make a food donations of non-perishable goods, can drop them off at Adelante’s main office on 10 Third Avenue in Brentwood or call 631-434-3481 with any questions.