Farmingdale teen's latest project is helping hungry vets

Between schoolwork, a part-time job, participating in clubs and playing four sports, Olivia Jungkunst has a lot on her plate. Still, the 15-year-old student at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale is taking the time to make sure that veterans have enough food on theirs.

For more than a month leading up to Veterans Day, Jungkunst led a drive for the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency’s “Vet Mart” food pantry in East Meadow that brought in more than $6,000 worth of food donations. Jungkunst, who lives in Farmingdale with her parents, Josephine and Mark, and younger sister Ella, plans to continue it again next year. 

“It’s like God sent me an angel,” said Ralph Esposito, director of the food pantry, of the high school sophomore. “I’ve never seen someone do something like this.”

Esposito, who started the pantry in 2015, said the need has doubled recently, with the facility now serving 40 to 45 veterans a day, up from 15 to 20 daily last year. When reliable donations from food banks dwindled, he began reaching out.

Carla Hall D'Ambra, whose local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution began filling the shelves, mentioned the pantry to Jungkunst, a family friend.

The teen immediately sprung into action, reaching out to businesses and local organizations for donations and creating an Amazon link so those who weren’t local could ship food to her house. She also created a flyer to make more veterans aware of the pantry. After coming home late from soccer practice, she would then pack up donations, sometimes until midnight.

Jungkunst said she was inspired by her mother, a retired NYPD detective, and two uncles who are veterans.

“A lot of [veterans] don’t really know they can get this food and they fight for our country and defend us,” she said. “It just felt like the right thing to do.”

Her mother Josephine, 50, would deliver the donations while she was in school and take photos of the grateful veterans to show the teen later.

“What’s amazing about this is there was no reward for her,” Josephine Jungkunst said. “The reward was just knowing that these guys truly appreciated it.”

Charitable work has been an integral part of her daughter's life, even as a young child. The teen has lent her help to breast cancer prevention nonprofit First Company Pink. She’s also baked and created greetings cards for members of Corporal George Benkert, Jr. VFW Post 516 in Farmingdale and rallied classmates to donate gifts to the Ronald McDonald House.

“She knows that it’s an important part of life to give back to the people who are there for us,” her mother said.

Jungkunst is part of the Long Island Soccer Club’s Girls Academy, a top-level and nationwide youth soccer program. She asked the academy to help with the food drive and Long Island director Meghan Frey put the call out on social media and set up donation boxes at their practice sites.

Frey, 42, said the decision to accept Jungkunst into the academy was based on her mentality and character, along with a fierce work ethic.

“She is very driven,” Frey said, recalling the busy volunteer's early days at the academy. “She was only 12 years old but even at that time she had a very defined and mature way of expressing her goals and how she wanted to achieve them. So it is very much in character for her to do this.”

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.