Local Food Pantries: Where and How to Donate

Wisdom Lane Food Pantry

• Where? The pantry is located inside Wisdom Lane Middle School at 120 Center Lane.
• Hours: 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• About: The Wisdom Lane food pantry serves the entire Levittown School District. The pantry is stocked by different students and faculty in the district, including boy scout and girl scout troops and student-athletes. 
• What they need: The pantry accepts any packaged or canned non-perishable items. There is always a demand for paper goods, especially toilet paper and towels. Aluminum foil, shampoo, soap
• For perishables: The pantry will take some donations for perishable items, but they also accept money donations. The money is converted into certificates that can be used at supermarkets to purchase perishable food items.
• Who goes? According to Jan Friedman, who runs the pantry, while some of the people who go to the pantry are out of work altogether, many people who come need extra help despite holding jobs. "Not everyone who comes is out of work," she said.
• Why donate? "When people think about their own family and what they have," Friedman said, "there are many compassionate people who give to others. I'm very lucky here in this pantry that many people have felt the need to give. They feel good about it." 
• Additional: While the need for donations is magnified during holiday months, the pantry operates year-round and supply is lowest at the start of the school year. The Levittown Kiwanis Club is planning a food drive in August to help keep the pantry stocked.

St. Bernard's Catholic Church

• Where? The pantry is located at 3100 Hempstead Turnpike in a two-story white building next to the church. People can also donate food in a box inside the church itself as they go in the door.
• Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• What they need: The pantry accepts canned goods and other non-perishable foods like pasta and cereal. They also accept paper goods, toiletries and food cards. Money donations are accepted and are used to pay utility and doctor bills for those in need.
• Who goes? According to Sister Christine, who runs the pantry, there is a wide variety of people who use the pantry. Included are people who live off of social services and public assistance. Single parents are also frequent users of the pantry. In the past, that included mainly single mothers, but the pantry has seen more single fathers in recent years. The pantry also helps undocumented workers who cannot get benefits elsewhere.
• Why donate? "We're a Catholic church, [and] it's our obligation to donate," said Sister Christine. "People want to do good for others, to help other people out, and a food pantry is a concrete way of doing that. People are generally people of good will, and a food pantry is a way to exercise charity."

Levittown Community Church

• The Levittown Community Church does not have its own food pantry, but they do collect canned goods, rice, beans and other non-perishable foods that they send to the pantry at the Hicksville United Methodist Church every week. Each month, they focus on a different type of non-perishable item to collect. (This month, their focus item is one-pound boxes of sugar.)
• The church also holds clothing drives for warm items. They held one concurrently with their veterans concert on Nov. 9.