Long Island restaurants, including those serving BBQ, pizza, Indian-Pakistani, offering free food to local SNAP recipients

John Leonard, owner of Struggletown BBQ in Mount Sinai, had a simple reason for helping those about to lose their federal food benefits Saturday due to the government shutdown: "I have a restaurant. I have a kitchen, and people need to eat."

When he announced his plan to provide one free pork pulled or chicken sandwich and a beverage to residents who showed their SNAP card, the idea began to mushroom, with people wanting to give money and volunteer. So he wants to expand his effort to help Long Islanders in need of food.

"What started as a simple idea has grown," Leonard said in a phone interview Thursday. He said he is looking to turn the effort to help recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called food stamps, into an "ongoing program where we can help people not sure where their next meal is coming from and get meals to them."

Now, the meal selections have expanded from a sandwich to ribs, or a platter of food, Leonard said.

On Friday, two federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must continue funding the SNAP program during the shutdown, after the government declined to use contingency funds to keep the program going. But it was unclear when benefits would resume and if appeals to the ruling would further delay that funding.

Meanwhile, Leonard has set up a GoFundMe page that had amassed donations of more than $8,000 of a $9,000 goal as of Thursday. In addition, he said patrons coming into the store had donated a total of $2,000.

"We have a lot of donations that's expanded what we can do," Leonard said. "I'm reaching out to Hope House Ministries and shelters and pantries. My goal now is to take all the donations that we've had, and all the people who have offered to volunteer and use that as a force multiplier ... to help a lot more people."

Leonard said he has also been busy planning his first-ever Thanksgiving meal giveaway and plans to "coordinate with volunteers so we can deliver it....We already have people on that list."

"With the life this has taken on, my goal now is to make this a sustainable program that will last throughout the year," Leonard said. He has created an email account where people can sign up to volunteer or to request help: struggletowncares@gmail.com.

Leonard isn't alone in wanting to help SNAP recipients.

Kevin Cassidy, owner of KC Pizza and Wings in Islip Terrace, Holtsville and Hauppauge, said he was motivated to help SNAP recipients because he had experienced watching his single mother work hard to provide for her family.

"As a kid, I grew up with a single mother. I know how hard it was for her in order to make ends meet," Cassidy said in a phone interview on Thursday. "In order to restore a little faith in humanity, I think this would be the right move. This is what God would want: to help people who need help the most."

Through his video posts on Instagram and TikTok on Tuesday, Cassidy said he had received $500 in donations via Venmo, which he plans to convert to gift cards for SNAP recipients, who must show their SNAP cards and identification. They would be offered their choice of pizza and a salad, "and any sort of pasta, one meal per person, and for a family," he said.

Cassidy said he was working closely with Mercy Haven "and their food bank in Islip Terrace to assist the nonprofit's clients. "We're just looking to help," he said.

Another restaurant participating in the free giveaway to SNAP recipients is the Clay Oven, a Halal Indian-Pakistani cuisine-themed restaurant in Hauppauge. When owner Lubna Habibi, who emigrated to New York from Karachi, Pakistan, in 1983, was asked why she wanted to do, she answered how could she not?

She said she has done similar meal giveaways during the COVID-19 pandemic and this seemed like as big a crisis for those in need.

Beginning Monday, the Clay Oven, at 601 Veterans Memorial Highway, will offer food, no questions asked, to 20 families a day, four days a week, until the shutdown ends or SNAP benefits are restored.  The meals will include portions of soup, bread, rice and chicken to feed two adults and two children.

Habibi also said her restaurant will not ask those seeking food to prove they’re SNAP recipients.

“I don’t know how many we can handle at this location, the reason we’re starting with 20 families, not more,” said Habib. “But, we won’t ask those things, for someone to prove with a SNAP card or something like that. In Arabic, we say ‘inshallah’ – if Allah wills it; that it’s God’s will. When you do for God’s will then you don’t ask all these things. You trust  ...  And, you do it just because you want to help. No other reason.”

Newsday's John Valenti contributed to this story.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie