Donate to support the program

The Summer Program to Fight Hunger and Climate Change was created in 2020 when the pandemic heightened food insecurity, isolation among youth and depleted the resources of local non-profits.

The program was collaboratively created by a coalition of Port Washington based non-profits (ReWild Long Island, Plant a Row for the Hungry, Growing Love Community Garden and Mosaic Foundation). The Summer Program aims to combat hunger and climate change at a community level by connecting young people and adult volunteers with hands-on experiences of growing food and sustaining biodiversity in local parks, farms and preserves. The emphasis is on learning-by-doing.

Working with experienced adult and youth coaches (past youth program participants) at local farms, preserves and gardens, interns will devote 4 hours per week from June to October to learning to grow, harvest and donate vegetables, plant and care for native plants, and growing their understanding of the relationship between human and natural ecosystems. All food grown through this program will be donated to area food pantries.

The Summer Program of 2020 successfully served 20 high school students with scholarship opportunities. These students were assisted by 10 adult volunteer coaches who collectively worked over 1,000 hours to raise and donate over 4,000 pounds of fresh produce to 85 families from Our Lady of Fatima Food Pantry. In October 2020, The program held a commendation ceremony to award certificates to those interns who successfully completed the Summer Program.  At this ceremony the interns were awarded commendations from New York State (Senator Anna Kaplan), Nassau County (Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton), and Town of North Hempstead (Councilpersons Marrian Dalimonte and Veronica Lurvey) all of whom presented the awards personally.

All donations to the program are tax deductible. Please use the link below and indicate that your dollars are meant specifically to support the Summer Program to Fight Hunger and Climate Change.