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Three Babylon and Bay Shore civic organizations are teaming up in an effort to help feed the needy in the local area.
On Feb. 3, Babylon Rotary, Babylon Lion’s Club, and the Bay Shore Lion’s Club will be hosting their first-ever Babylon-Bay Shore Ends Hunger event.
This is the third event of its kind, but the first time Bay Shore is joining in to help.
“We do a lot with the Babylon Rotary, they are very active,” said Paul Wernerbach Sr., of the Bay Shore Lion’s Club.
The day will consist of volunteers meeting up at the First Presbyterian Church on 79 East Main Street in Babylon and packaging up food that will have been sent in bulk by a nonprofit organization called the Outreach Program.
The food includes mac and cheese, rice and beans, and oatmeal.
The volunteers will also be sprinkling a nutritional component into each meal.
“If this is the only meal you are getting in a day, you will be getting enough nutrition to survive,” said Megan Noble, the past president of the Babylon Rotary.
The cost for an Outreach Program meal costs .25 cents, when you break it down. And that’s a lot cheaper than a typical mac and cheese box, for example, in the supermarkets.
All the food will be going directly to local pantries and soup kitchens in the Bay Shore and Babylon areas, according to Noble.
“It’s really a great program,” she said. “We’re getting food to the food pantries, it’s cheaper, and it is more nutritious.”
And, the community is rallying around it.
“The first event we did we packaged 30,000 meals, our second event this past November we packaged 60,000 meals,” said Noble.
According to Babylon Rotary, about 300 people show up to help, and from all ages.
“We get people that are 80 years old and up, and we get kids 4, 5 years old,” said Noble.
to volunteer
The Babylon-Bay Shore Ends Hunger event is still looking for more volunteers. To do so, you can click here to sign up. The event runs from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Feb. 3.
Top: Volunteers helping at a previous Babylon Ends Hunger event. (courtesy)
