Food Giveaway At Farmingdale State College For Federal Workers Monday

FARMINGDALE, NY — Federal workers can receive food distributed by local food banks, Long Island Cares, and Island Harvest, on Monday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Farmingdale State College.

The two food banks partnered to provide the emergency food aid to the federal employees who are furloughed or working without pay during the government shutdown.

The event is exclusively for federal workers and not open to the public. Federal workers have to bring their ID and register online at any time Monday before they arrive.

Peter Crescenti, media relations for LI Cares, said the primary purpose of the event is "to make sure federal workers and their families can eat three square meals a day."

Crescenti said they will continue to help community members for however long it takes.

"We have no projection on how long this will go on for," he said. "If this continues another week or more, SNAP recipients will be flooding food pantries, soup kitchens, etc. all over Long Island, and it will be somewhat of a crisis to provide three meals a day, plus federal workers."

Crescenti said there are about 160,000 people on Long Island who rely on SNAP benefits, plus about 30,000 federal workers.

He also said there are 318,000 already-identified food-insecure Long Islanders, and 71,000 of those are children.

"We already have a tidal wave of need now," he said. "Everybody has to step up."