Island Harvest gets $400K grant from CARES Act funds

Island Harvest Food Bank’s No One Should Go Hungry in Hempstead food distribution program has received a $400,000 grant funded by the federal CARES Act.

The money, given through the Town of Hempstead, will assist in providing critical food support for Long Islanders facing food insecurity.

The No One Should Go Hungry in Hempstead program will continue to provide much-needed food support via three food distributions, to seniors, communities and health centers, and it will run through the end December.

The first part of the program focuses on seniors over the age of 65. Island Harvest Food Bank will package and distribute 4,500 healthy shelf-stable food boxes to seniors at different drop-off points and 15 low-income senior housing sites.

The second part of the program reaches families, students and other members in the community through 4,000 boxes of healthy food containing items such as meat, fresh produce, dairy products and more, with four distributions over the next two weeks.

The third part of the program is an alliance with four Long Island federally qualified health centers in Elmont, Roosevelt, Hempstead and Freeport that have been on the front lines fighting COVID-19.