CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — A team of volunteers from local QuickChek fresh convenience market stores helped provide 2,400 meals to help feed more than 400 children and families during a “grab-and-go” drive-through pickup event organized by the Island Harvest Food Bank on Thursday, August 20, 2020.
A half-dozen volunteers helped the food bank distribute enough breakfasts, lunches and assorted foods to last each child for three days as part of Island Harvest’s childhood hunger program event held at Central Islip High School.
The breakfast meals consisted of a whole grain breakfast bar, an orange and milk. The lunches consisted of whole grain pasta with chicken, sweet peas, an apple and milk or whole grain baked ziti with a plum and milk.
When the COVID-19 outbreak began to spread across Long Island, Island Harvest Food Bank immediately opened its Emergency Resource Center. The food bank increased its purchasing of emergency response food by more than 50%, collected thousands of pounds of donated products and created a distribution plan targeted to those most at risk.
Island Harvest Food Bank has provided close to 4.8 million meals to over 300 emergency and non-emergency sites across Suffolk and Nassau Counties and has partnered with nine different school districts to distribute much needed food, keeping children of all ages and their families nourished during this turbulent time.
This was the second time local QuickChek store team members have aided Long Island families in recent weeks; volunteers packed 12,513 meals at Island Harvest’s non-profit food distribution center to help local veterans and homebound senior citizens in July.
The family-owned company enjoys a long history of giving back to the neighborhoods and communities it serves, having raised millions of dollars to support a variety of causes benefiting children, families and military veterans. QuickChek actively supports community food banks across Long Island, the Hudson Valley and New Jersey.
“We’re proud to be a part of our local communities and to help our neighbors in their time of need, whether that’s through our team members volunteering to support the food banks’ distribution channels or by providing a safe shopping environment throughout our stores during this crisis,” said QuickChek CEO Dean Durling.
The fresh convenience market chain has 160 stores offering one-stop shopping for fresh food, beverages, essential household market items and fuel throughout the Metropolitan area; QuickChek’s Long Island locations include Bethpage, Bohemia, Brentwood, Commack, Copiague, and Lake Grove.
In addition to supplying much-need manpower through volunteer days at various food banks throughout the year, QuickChek has raised more than $761,000 as a partner of the annual Check-Out Hunger campaign that takes place ahead of the winter holidays.
To learn more, please visit www.quickchek.com.
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Mensch & Company, Inc.
Public Relations & Event Marketing
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