Last year, Island Harvest distributed 20 million pounds of food in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. That’s enough food to fill 500 semi-trucks stretching end-to-end for nearly seven miles, longer than the island of Manhattan. The organization works with 320 partners ranging from soup kitchens to faith-based groups to ensure that this food makes it into the hands of people who need it most.

Island Harvest feeds Long Islanders. But it is more than a food bank—it is a center of education, advocacy, and services that aims to address food insecurity holistically. “We have a mission of ending hunger and reducing food waste on Long Island,” said Randi Shubin Dresner, President and CEO. “We could continually give people food, but if we do that solely, we’re not going to end hunger. Feeding people is important, but also growing these kinds of programs—we call them ‘tools in the toolbox’—is how we can help the community come closer to their goals of being self-sufficient and independent.”

“The commitment here at Island Harvest … is really looking at people’s lives and [asking,] how do we really transform families for future generations?” added Chief Network Officer Jenny Schaeffer.

Island Harvest puts this commitment into practice through innovative programming like its workforce development program, which prepares underemployed individuals for food industry employment, its senior food box program, which provides 35-pound packages of healthy food to income-qualified adults each month, and its “backpack program,” which ensures that kids in need can take home bags of healthy food over the weekend during the school year.

Island Harvest also runs a healthcare-based nutrition program that embeds registered dietitians within hospitals and federally qualified health centers where they screen patients for food insecurity. Those identified are then enrolled in a 12-week program that combines nutritional counseling with weekly food deliveries and practical cooking support. These initiatives reflect Island Harvest’s mission to tackle hunger by equipping individuals to create lasting food security for themselves and their families.

A community approach

Island Harvest’s success is grounded in the strength of its internal organization and its community collaborations. With the launch of New York State’s 1115 Medicaid waiver program in 2024, the organization has been able to build on that foundation through its partnership with HEALI, Long Island’s Social Care Network (SCN). The HEALI SCN connects organizations like Island Harvest with healthcare providers and partners to address the health-related social needs (HRSNs) of Long Island’s Medicaid members. Led by the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island (HWCLI), HEALI screens Medicaid members for needs like access to nutritious food, reliable transportation, and adequate housing then navigates and refers them to services that can help meet those needs.

Through HEALI, Island Harvest has deepened its alignment between food security and whole-person health. “HEALI has really allowed us to transform some of our priorities, which is the health and nutrition and feeding families—not just food, but healthy food—and create healthier families,” said Jenny.

HEALI also enables Island Harvest to expand its reach. Before working with HEALI, staff relied on a manually updated resource book to refer their 10,000 yearly callers to services beyond food support if necessary.

Now, thanks to the HEALI network of services and organizations and its digital screening and navigation system, making warm referrals to other community resources is more efficient. “Now, if we get a phone call and somebody needs help finding housing or finding heat assistance, or maybe they’re having difficulty with their car, we could go into this resource and find some really good information and make a warm referral through an integrated network, making it an easier, better, and more successful experience for everyone,” said Randi.

“Our relationship with the SCN is helping us work with other organizations… to also grow that kind of work that’s so important to Island Harvest,” Jenny concurred.

Impacting lives for the long term

By acting as a hub, HEALI ensures that food banks like Island Harvest can identify and assist Medicaid participants who may be eligible for services they didn’t know existed. Randi explained, “It’s like we are coming to them saying, did you know that there are these things that can actually make your life healthier, your family’s life healthier? Not even just better or easier, but healthier.”

Jenny and Randi shared the story of a mother and daughter receiving services through the HEALI network as an example of the value of this work. The mother, homebound and uncomfortable going to food pantries in-person, now receives regular deliveries to their home of nutritious food tailored to her family’s needs, thanks to HEALI’s coordination of meal delivery for eligible Medicaid members.

Jenny, who came to food banking through her own lived experience of food insecurity, emphasizes, “The impact that makes, it’s hard to even put into words,” she said. “But to be a mother and to know that your child is now able to eat healthfully and send them off to school… that’s the kind of work that through HEALI and partnerships with all of these organizations and the 1115 waiver, we’re able to impact families in ways that we weren’t able to before.”

To learn more about the work of Island Harvest, please visit: www.islandharvest.org.