Garden City summit targets hunger on LI

Each year, an estimated 283,700 Long Islanders seek emergency food help, according to national hunger relief organization Feeding America.

That's a group larger than the population of Newark, N.J.

To combat the growing problem, local nonprofits and governmental welfare agencies are looking toward an unlikely ally: the business sector.

Dozens of local business leaders spent Tuesday morning discussing how their companies can get involved with public-sector and nonprofit counterparts, at a Hunger Summit LI hosted by Adelphi University's Center for Social Innovation, and Island Harvest, the largest hunger relief organization in Nassau and Suffolk.

With Long Island's reputation as wealthy suburbia, many summit participants said they were unaware how many locals were actually lacking adequate food.

"I wasn't fully aware of the magnitude of the issue," said Daniel Grinberg, president of private equity firm Meadow Ridge Capital of Jericho. After recently volunteering with Island Harvest, Grinberg said he wanted to highlight anti-hunger efforts at his company.

"I will incorporate hunger relief into the company's core," he said, with ideas of donating sales proceeds to charities to working with food industry companies to improve collection and distribution of foods.

The number of local residents struggling for food has grown dramatically in the past few years as the economy tanked, said Sarah Eichberg, center director.

The Hunger in America 2010 analysis published in February noted Island Harvest and Long Island Cares provide emergency hunger-relief services to an estimated 283,700 low-income individuals on Long Island annually. The report noted 609 of the 702 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters that receive food from the two groups responded to its survey so the number could be higher or lower due to sampling and other errors.

The summit aimed to tap business leaders' solution-oriented mindset, said Randi Shubin Dresner, the president and chief executive of Island Harvest. It also prompted suggestions of alternative ways of approaching hunger relief, from donations of used computer equipment to simply thinking differently about what a company could do to help.

As a volunteer with the Long Island Food Not Bombs community organization, Jon Stepanian collects excess food from restaurants and stores for redistribution to the needy.

Stepanian said he sometimes encounters resistance from businesses, including one market owner who didn't realize he could avoid unnecessary costs by donating excess milk and juice instead of instructing employees to throw out foodstuff - then waste time documenting the process.

"People really want to help out, even though it's a tough economy," he said. With creative thinking, "you can definitely find a way to help out."

A growing need for relief

Hunger relief has become increasingly necessary on Long Island in the past few years as many people lost jobs and were unable to feed their familes,food agencies and researchers say.

• Between May 2006 to May 2009, the number of Nassau households enrolling for food stamps jumped 43.5 percent, while the number of Suffolk households enrolling for food stamps increased 54 percent, according to research by the Adelphi University's Center for Social Innovation.

- SOPHIA CHANG