In the spirit of giving

A communitywide effort is expected to feed 100 homebound seniors, mostly in Inwood and Lawrence, on Thanksgiving, and as the spirit of giving spreads, donations will help many others in the Five Towns as well.
For three years, lifelong Inwood resident Greg Nunn has cooked meals on the second and third Friday of every month for seniors. Now, with help from the Five Towns Community Center, Five Towns Community Chest, the Lawrence School District and another Inwood resident, Mike Boyle, all the items needed to put together Thanksgiving meals have been collected.
“My grandmother started me off years ago with people from Goldwater Hospital,” said Nunn, who has lived in Inwood since 1946 and also leads the civic-minded Inwood Community Group. “People in wheelchairs, on crutches and from different churches would come to our house for a big barbecue. She said the best way to serve God is to serve other people. If you see a need, just do it.” Goldwater Hospital is now Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility, on Roosevelt Island, near Manhattan.
“The community center wanted to do something special, and that got the ball rolling,” said its president, Pete Sobol, who also lives in Inwood. “From the school district, [Deputy Superintendent] Ann Pedersen and [middle school Principal] Willis Perry backed having a food drive, and Mike Boyle is making a financial contribution so everybody gets what they need.”
Community Chest, which is collecting about 220 turkeys from Key Food in North Woodmere and the Green Acres Mall, will donate some of those birds to Nunn and to the Five Towns Early Learning Center in Inwood, the community center and the Lawrence and Hewlett-Woodmere school districts. “We will be supplementing Nunn’s initiative through Pete Sobol,” said Bob Block, Community Chest’s executive director. We Care, the charitable arm of the Nassau Bar Association, and Peninsula Kiwanis are also contributing baskets and food items.

Inwood resident Curtis Stevens and Rockaway resident Barbara Jordan are helping Nunn prepare, cook and deliver the food. Sometimes, Nunn said, other people help as well. “We start preparing two days before Thanksgiving, then we’re cooking,” he said. “The day before, we’re out of the house by 10 a.m. and start delivering. We feed the needy, not the greedy.”
The Lawrence High School Key Club, the Council of Unity (a leadership-training course for middle school and high school students) and Lawrence Elementary School at the Broadway Campus also chipped in a variety of food items. Elementary school students and staff sorted the donations and created 30 boxes of food. In addition, school staff donated $360, and other families in need will be given supermarket gift cards. Boston Market, in Lawrence, also donated three Thanksgiving meals to three area families, school officials said.
“It was a school-wide effort, where each class donated and packed a box of groceries,” said Jennifer Talenti, an English as a Second Language teacher at the elementary school and its Student Council adviser.
“The Kindness Food Drive is an extension of our social emotional literacy curriculum.” Social emotional learning aims to improve student behavior by teaching them how to manage their emotions and care for and respect others.
Fifth-grader Alexis Acosta said that everyone at the school worked hard on the food drive. “We showed our kindness to people in our community,” she said. “That’s important because I get to help people. That makes me happy because I get to make new friends while helping people.”