Long Island Cares program helps vets, in the garden and at the dinner table

On a warm November day, Luis Correa came to a community garden in Huntington to winterize a bed of garlic, the final planting of the season.

He soon discovered something else — the fall harvest had more to give. And with Veterans Day approaching, Correa carefully dug into the rich soil and gently pulled up bunches of plump sweet potatoes bound for dinner tables of his fellow vets.

It's not just satisfying for the 71-year-old Huntington resident when he pulls up the last of his 2021 crop.

"It’s rewarding," said Correa, who grew up on his family's farm in Puerto Rico that grew pineapples, sugar cane and oranges.

For months, the Navy veteran of the Vietnam War era has tended green beans, tomatoes, onions, and those sweet potatoes, as part of a Long Island Cares program to teach vets the finer points of gardening while feeding Long Island former service members in need.

Correa and other veterans taking part can keep some of what they grow at the Town of Huntington’s Gateway Park Organic Community Garden, with the rest offered to vets at Long Island Cares food pantries.

The program was established in 2016 as a collaboration between Long Island Cares First Stop Pantry/Harry Chapin Humanitarian Center and the Long Island Community Agricultural Network.

"Not a lot of pantries have fresh vegetables and produce," said Idalia Boczek, who runs the Chapin center's gardening program. "The veterans know they are going to get fresh vegetables and they look forward to it."

Boczek said she works alongside the veterans in the garden and is always amazed by the diversity of each harvest.

"We have every variety of tomato, green peppers, red hot chili peppers, even purple peppers" she said, her voice raising in excitement.

Long Island Cares sets aside Tuesdays as military appreciation days for active service members and veterans. The Hauppauge-based regional food bank has six pantries including the Harry Chapin Food Bank and Humanitarian Center in Huntington Station. Food and household supplies are available as well as food for pets.

As of October 1, 1,539 veterans were registered for food assistance in Nassau and Suffolk counties according to Long Island Cares.

The gardening program, which runs during the growing season, usually attracts at least half a dozen veterans. Boczek said attendance dropped during the pandemic but she already has several veterans signed up for next spring. Long Island Cares also helps veterans with job searches and accessing benefits. In addition, a mobile outreach unit has provided more than 41,000 meals to veteran families so far in 2021.

Fernando L. Rivera, a 66-year-old Marine Corps veteran from Farmingville, took pride in the bumper crop of eggplants he grew this season in the garden.

"My plants were awesome," said Rivera, who served from 1972 to 1978. "It gives me satisfaction knowing it will go to other veterans."

Even though gardening is tough work, Rivera said, it's relaxing.

"I enjoy the tranquility of doing what I’m doing and then in the end knowing it will benefit someone else," he said.

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.