Lessing's Hospitality Group Hosts Fall Cleanups

Lessing’s Hospitality Group, one of the region’s most innovative industry leaders, is honoring their commitment to preserving the environment and continuing the company’s “Do Good” initiative this fall with two shore cleanups in honor of International Coastal Cleanup Day on September 21. The sixth-generation, family-owned company comprised of over 120 locations throughout the Northeast and Florida has partnered with Friends of the Bay, an organization dedicated to protecting Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor, to host the first annual North Shore Harbor Clean-Up at West Harbor Beach on Wednesday, September 18th from 2 – 5 p.m. The second shore cleanup, the Annual Gilgo Beach Clean-Up with Save the Beaches, will take place on September 28thfrom 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. in partnership with Save the Great South Bay. The Lessing’s team collected over 400 pounds of garbage at the Save the Beaches event in 2018 and are looking forward to doing their part to keep the beaches clean this year and in the years to come.

Lessing’s Hospitality Group’s “Do Good”initiative spans throughout the year with several programs committed to preserving the environment by reducing plastic consumption to help keep the oceans and lands clean. Recently the team partnered with Suffolk County to clean up Stony Brook Creek by hand cutting Phragmites, an invasive species choking many waterways on Long Island. The hospitality group has joined the international movement #SkipTheStraw and went “strawless” at all ten of the group’s restaurants in 2018. The restaurants now offer 100% renewable and compostable straws and biodegradable beverage stirrers only at the request of guests. Coinciding with the #SkipTheStraw Campaign, all restaurants offer a specialty cocktail made with Naked Turtle Rum, a brand committed to saving sea turtles. Furthermore, the restaurants have converted all take out containers to 100% renewable and biodegradable Greenware. Finally, Lessing’s participates in the nationwide campaign, the Crayon Initiative, collecting and recycling used and unwanted crayons to distribute to children’s hospitals across the country. This endeavour has significantly reduced the number of crayons discarded each year (nearly 60 million), helped to preserve the environment and enriched the lives of hospitalized children through art and imagination.

Lessing’s Hospitality Groupis dedicated to supporting the local community and charitable organizations through various “Do Good” initiatives throughout the year. Lessing’s kicked off the year with a partnership with Island Harvest Food Bank, the largest hunger relief organization on Long Island. The campaign began with the Plant-A-Garden event on April 9that Island Harvest Food Bank’s 1.8-acre “Giving Garden” in Brentwood, where the Lessing’s team spent the day in the fields planting seeds for this year’s crop which will provide healthy, fresh produce to help support Long Islanders in need. April 9thalso marked the launch of the social media campaign encouraging donations to Island Harvest Food Bank. The campaign culminated on Earth Day, April 22nd, when Lessing’s Hospitality Group matched donations made on Earth Day to Island Harvest Food Bank. As a result, on Earth Day Lessing’s donated 5,000 meals for the 300,000 Long Islanders struggling with hunger and food insecurity. April is also Autism Awareness Month, and the Lessing’s Main Street Restaurants honor the occasion with a special wine give back, “#WineNot?” Ten percent of all proceeds from OneHope Wine sales are donated to “Dine Out 4 Autism,” a movement that raises funds for autism research. On National Pancake Day (March 5th), Lessing’s popular brunch spot in Huntington, Hatch, donated 100% of pancake sales to Family Service League, a Long Island social services agency supporting over 50,000 people in need across the island. Each October the Post Office Cafe hosts an annual 5K race for MPS, raising funds for the National MPS Society, in honor of Mark and Casey Lessing. Finally in December, Lessing’s partners again with Island Harvest in the Spread the Cheer campaign, encouraging customers to drink beer and give back during the holiday season. Lessing’s pledges to donate 10% of all sales of the group’s private label seasonal brew, Local Cheer, directly to Island Harvest.

“Hospitality and giving back go hand in hand. Whether it be supporting a local cause close to our hearts or to our employees, cleaning the beaches, or helping those in need, it is what gives us a purpose,” declares Mark Lessing, Executive Vice President of Lessing’s Hospitality Group. “As a company we have pledged to ‘Do Good’ for the planet and our local community, while emphasizing our legacy of remarkable hospitality into everything we do,” concludes Jennifer Cantin, Director of Marketing & Development, Lessing’s Hospitality Group.