Friday, October 2, 2026
Long Island Cares, a nonprofit with a major location in Freeport, is joining forces with Island Harvest, six other food banks in the tri-state area, Stop & Shop, NBC New York and Telemundo 47 for the annual Feeding Our Families food-collection drive.
The one-day hunger relief campaign will take place on April 25, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at more than 170 Stop & Shop locations, where participants can donate funds, food and household items that regional food banks can distribute.
Feeding Our Families was launched in 2017 with the mission of combatting hunger in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Long Island Cares has been a part of each iteration of the event and will have at least 14 volunteers helping with collections across three Long Island stores.
The annual food drive was cancelled in 2019 due to a Stop & Shop labor strike and from 2020-22 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the event has since returned and helped collect massive amounts of food items and thousands of dollars in funding for food banks in the tri-state area.
“The reality is simple,” Katherine Fritz, president and CEO of Long Island Cares, said. “Too many Long Islanders are still struggling to keep food on the table, and partnerships like this are how we meet the need in a real and meaningful way. This is about more than a single day of giving. It is about showing up for our communities with consistency and purpose.”
In addition to collections on April 25, Stop & Shop already has opened the campaign by giving shoppers the opportunity to round up their food purchases to the nearest dollar to go towards supporting Long Island Cares and other food banks. This front-end campaign began on April 13 and will end on April 26.
Daniel Wolk, Stop & Shop’s external communications manager, voiced similar enthusiasm for the event and its partnerships, stating that combatting hunger and food insecurity is “Stop & Shop’s number one charitable pillar.”
“What many people don’t realize is that currently hunger and food insecurity across the nation is worse now than at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Wolk said. “That’s why we’re asking our customers to support this. That’s why we’re partnering with NBC 4, Telemundo and our fantastic food bank partners because we want to give them every opportunity to support those in need. Food shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be a basic human right.”
According to officials, food banks are in greater demand, while supplies have stayed stagnant or decreased for a variety of factors. John Durso, vice president for Community and Communications for NBC New York, said that food banks and other nonprofit organizations that he’s spoken with have faced significant challenges in recent years.
“They have seen significant challenges due to the federal cuts,” Durso said, citing major cutbacks and policy revisions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, through the federal administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, as a factor leading to less affordability for many families and more strain being placed on food banks.
Durso also mentioned the rising price of gasoline across Long Island and the rest of the United States as further contributing to financial hardships of some of the country’s most vulnerable households.
“They’ve had to do more with less,” he said.
Peter Crescenti, a Long Island Cares spokesman, also mentioned that many immigrants who would typically rely on the agency’s services, are refraining from going to their food banks in Freeport and other locations due to fear of being arrested or profiled by immigration authorities, furthering their personal food insecurity concerns.
According to Long Island Cares, an estimated 313,800 Long Island residents are food insecure, accounting for nearly 3 percent of its population. They estimate that “more than 2.2 million” people in New York state are food insecure, which is about a tenth of the state’s population.
Various studies conclude that food insecure people, especially children and seniors, are more likely to exhibit decreased stamina, poor social skills, behavioral issues and more physical and mental health deficiencies.
Beyond non-perishable items like canned goods and dried pasta, some of the most requested items include everyday items like diapers, baby formula and other hygiene products. The funds and resources collected in each area will be given to the food bank in that location. Long Island Cares and Island Harvest will split the proceeds that are collected at the various Long Island locations.
Some nearby participating Stop and Shop addresses include but are not limited to, 905 Atlantic Avenue in Baldwin, 2160 South Merrick Mall in Merrick, and 3577 Long Beach Road in Oceanside.
To view the complete list of requested donation items and the participating Stop & Shop locations, visit NBCNewYork.com/fooddrive or telemundo47.com/ayuda.
