Cuomo's celeb gal pal visits 2 LI food banks

Food celebrity and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's longtime girlfriend Sandra Lee spent Monday on Long Island visiting with officials of the Island's two food banks but deflecting questions about whether she'll use her "first lady" status to advance her cause fighting childhood hunger at the state level.

"The reason I'm here today is a personal one," Lee said as she stood in the warehouse at Bay Shore nonprofit Pronto of Long Island, a group supplied by Mineola food bank Island Harvest, which she visited as part of her tour. Lee went on to describe a childhood marked by welfare and food stamps, and one in which she watched her grandmother run her church's food pantry.

But whether her interest in hunger will translate into action at the state level was a question that was off-limits. Lee's publicist jumped in to cut media questioning off at the very mention of the words "first lady."

"I'm not here to talk about my personal life," Lee said later, while packing bags full of ready-to-eat meals for the homeless at Long Island Cares. "If I hadn't been doing this all this time, someone might question it, but my track record speaks for itself."

Lee, who hosts Food Network's "Semi-Homemade" cooking show and is a national spokeswoman for two childhood hunger organizations, has embarked on a tour of all 10 food banks in the state. During each visit representatives from Sam's Club have presented a donation of $10,000 to each food bank.

"She cares about hunger," said Randi Shubin Dresner, president and chief executive of Island Harvest. "She's vowed to work with us. She's using her platform as an author, a TV personality and a chef. She's not leaning on the other new part of her life."

At Long Island Cares in Hauppauge later, Lee enthusiastically stuffed ready-to-eat canned soup, cereal, granola bars and bottles of water into plastic bags to be distributed to the homeless from the food bank's mobile outreach van.

"I've got it down!" she exclaimed, as she and staffers struggled to fit all the goods into the small bags.

Long Island Cares executive director Paule Pachter said he's glad that Lee is lending her celebrity status to the cause of hunger in New York - even if it's not as first lady.

"She certainly didn't say, 'I'm Sandra Lee and you have a friend in Albany,' " Pachter said afterward. "She said, 'I'm Sandra Lee from the Food Network, and you have a champion for your cause.' "