Adelante and Pronto sponsor food caravan for the homeless

Adelante of Suffolk County and Pronto of Long Island sponsored a caravan of food and supplies last weekend to help local people struggling with homelessness.

The nonprofits, which mostly serve the Hispanic and Latino communities of Bay Shore, Central Islip and Brentwood, filled vans with hot and cold food for about 500 people, clothing, personal protection equipment and hygiene products, in the effort called the Help Everyone Love People project.

The food and other items were donated by local sponsors, including Carroll’s Kitchen, United Health Care, Angels of Long Island and Communities Loving Communities, according to a joint statement.

Volunteers from Pronto and Adelante helped to distribute the supplies along with a contingent from Brentwood High School’s My Brother’s Keeper group. The Suffolk County Police Department was also present to assist at each of the four stops.

The care packages also contained contact information for emergency housing options, mental health crisis hotline and other outreach organizations that can assist people struggling with homelessness. Organizers of the care caravan hope to plan another distribution day sometime in the late spring.

“It has been apparent that during the pandemic there are more and more people struggling with homelessness,” Maidaya Maldonado, director of Adelante, said in the statement. “Adelante, together with our neighbor Pronto of Long Island, have joined forces to collect food, clothing and other much-needed items that were distributed. We couldn’t do this without the generous support of our sponsors.”

Marc Soto, executive director of Pronto of Long Island, said: “Serving our community with our sister organization Adelante and our generous sponsors out in the neighborhoods they live in is a blessing and the beginning of many more outreach partnerships to come.”