Suffolk Coronavirus: Food Going To Waste Upstate Feeds LI Hungry

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A program created to match up farmers from upstate New York — who were seeing their milk and other products going to waste during the coronavirus crisis — with the growing number of hungry downstate launched on Long Island Friday.

New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the Nourish NY initiative brings together farmers from upstate who can't sell their products and downstate residents who are "going hungry and can't pay for food." So far, $25 million has been allocated to the program to bolster 25 food banks, he said.

Looking ahead, Cuomo said the hope is to garner support of philanthropies. Those interested can email covidphilanthropies@exec.ny.gov.

On Friday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone headed to his self-professed old stomping grounds, the Westfield Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, where a food drive was held and "thousands of meals" were handed out by Island Harvest.

The event was the first in the state to unfold as part of Cuomo's Nourish NY program, "a tremendous thing," Bellone said. "The idea that these dairy products and meat were being wasted because of a shutdown in the economy doesn't make sense. Gov. Cuomo stepped up and said, 'We have to fix this.' He helped to connect farmers with food providers like Island Harvest, to allow them to purchase these items to give to those who are in need."

Food insecurity, Bellone said, was present event before the pandemic and has only grown "larger in numbers" and has become "even more exacerbated" as unemployment reaches historic new levels.

Also present at the event was Rob Carpenter of the Long Island Farm Bureau, Bellone said.

Those who are in need can also call 311 for food; provisions are also being distributed at hot spot coronavirus testing sites across Suffolk County, Bellone said.

VE Day

Friday, Bellone said, marked the 75th anniversary of VE Day, commemorating the end of World War II in Europe. Normally, he said, veterans would be brought together to be honored and thanked for their sacrifice.

"One of the cruelest ironies as at this moment, we would be bringing together WWII veterans to honor them for an accomplishment that gave them the name, the 'Greatest Generation.' But we can't do that and we know at the same time, the virus is attacking the Greatest Generation ruthlessly and viciously," Bellone said.

To honor the vets, Bellone joined Suffolk County Police Chief Stuart Cameron at Armed Forces Plaza to raise a flag; that flag was then brought to the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook, where it will be presented to veterans and displayed, so that all "WWII vets isolated in their rooms will be able to watch the commemoration" on their TVs, Bellone said.

Confirmed cases top 40,000

For the first time on Friday, the cases of confirmed cases of coronavirus topped 40,000; as of Friday afternoon, that number was 40,484. An additional 694 cases were confirmed in 24 hours and 3,961 new positive antibody tests were added to the final tally, Bellone said.

An additional 21 deaths were reported, bringing the total countywide to 1,568.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus by town is as follows:

Islip: 11,528

Brookhaven: 8,777

Babylon: 6,546

Huntington: 4,855

Smithtown: 2,314

Southampton: 869

Riverhead: 593

Southold: 390)

East Hampton: 258

Shelter Island: 7

Supplies distributed

An additional 163,000 pieces of personal protective equipment were distributed Thursday, bringing the countywide total to more than 4 million pieces since the crisis began in March, Bellone said.

Dashboard of Hope

Positive stories are pouring in to Suffolk County officials, with two stories, for example, praising teachers at local schools.

Suffolk County Police Academy graduation

Bellone congratulated the 70 members of the 178th class of the Suffolk County Police Academy who graduated Friday in a "very different kind of ceremony, a visual ceremony" that was streamed on Facebook Live and watched by more than 25,000 family members and friends across the country. The class graduated early to help responded to the COVID-19 crisis, he said.