Podcasts food for thought for LI Council of Churches

The Long Island Council of Churches is taking a new route as it spreads the word about Long Islanders in need: the podcast.

In a bid to take its mission to a broader audience, the council has launched a series of podcasts that not only address the hard times in which many Long Islanders find themselves, but also attempt to generate revenue for the group's food pantries in Freeport and Riverhead.

"It's a brave new experiment," the Rev. Thomas Goodhue of Amityville, a Methodist minister and executive director of the council, said of the series called "Life in Difficult Times - How to Make It Through."

"A whole lot of what the council does is to help people get through hard times," he said. "In this recession we have unprecedented desire to help people going through hard times - it's easier to get volunteers than it used to be. Even people who have very little are eager to help."

Goodhue points to the more than 250,000 people that Long Island's 275 food pantries have fed in the past year. In the past three years, he said, the number of people getting food aid from the council's Riverhead pantry has more than tripled, from 300 a month to 1,000. In many instances, he said, the people who a year or two ago were volunteers are now asking for help.

The podcasts aim to help, Goodhue said, by giving information valuable to potential donors and volunteers as well as to those in need. The recordings address the need for donations of food and other aid and also tell those who need help how to get it.

Proceeds to pantries

There are three podcasts, so far, in the series: "The Magnitude of the Problem," "Pride" and "How You Can Help." Listeners can buy the package for $3.75, or a la carte, for $1.25 each, at podarama.com/licc.

The net proceeds for each podcast, about 80 cents, will go to the council's food pantries, according to Allan Varela, a musician who came up with the idea. They were produced by Varela's Port Jefferson Station company, Sunlost Publishing, and it's a song he wrote, called "Peace, Hope, Unity," that begins and ends each podcast.

Goodhue's is the primary voice of the podcasts, which range from eight to 15 minutes. He is joined in some by Barbara Sakovich of Port Jefferson, who became involved through her work with the Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council, of which Varela is the executive director.

The podcasts are a primer on the problems plaguing those who are needy on Long Island. In the first, "The Magnitude of the Problem," Goodhue describes an "explosion" of need on Long Island; the second, "Pride," tells listeners that they can hold their heads high and still ask for help; the third, "How You Can Help," describes the many ways people can help - by looking in their cupboards to see what they can give, by giving of their seasonal excess, even by donating their own professional services if they're out of work.

Religious diversity

Varela and Goodhue have more podcasts in the works, including four that tackle financial literacy, another mission of the council. Those will explore mortgages, credit cards, health insurance and paying for college. And Goodhue hopes to develop a series on religious diversity that would feature conversations among the members of the Long Island Multifaith Forum - an effort to continue, he said, "to bring together people of diverse faiths."

It's a diverse audience that the council is trying to reach with the podcasts, Varela said. "We were looking at members of the [Long Island] Council of Churches," he said, "but really anyone who's interested in finding out what happens behind the headlines, with the economy, the structural cracks that people aren't paying attention to . . . so we thought, let's try an educational approach."

"Our neighbors are hungry," Goodhue added, "and these [podcasts] can help all of us understand the plight of the working poor."