AT&T Donates $25K to Island Harvest Kids Program

Recently, AT&T generously donated $25,000 to help Mineola-based Island Harvest, Long Island’s largest hunger relief organization, sustain its Kids Weekend Backpack Program, supplying children with meals on non-school days.

“Children should not know the burden of hunger; too often, parents are forced to pay bills rather than put food on the table for their families,” Island Harvest CEO Randi Shubin Dresner said in a release. “We are extremely grateful to receive a donation of this magnitude from our friends at AT&T. A donation of $500 dollars can feed a child for nearly one year; one could only imagine how helpful $25,000 will be to our backpack program.”

Through Island Harvest’s Kids Weekend Backpack Program, children who rely on school lunch programs are discreetly supplied with a pack of nutritious, shelf-stable food - enough for two lunches, two breakfasts, two snacks and two servings of milk. Currently, the program runs in 24 schools and serves nearly 1,700 children across Long Island. Donations, such as those from AT&T, help Island Harvest to enter new schools and help more children.

“Children should be focused on their family, friends and  extracurricular activities over the weekend, not thinking about where they will get their next meal,” said Brandon Ray, regional director of external affairs at AT&T. “AT&T is pleased to be able to support an exemplary organization such as Island Harvest. We commend the food bank on its continued efforts to help end childhood hunger – a serious issue that affects too many on Long Island.”

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