HAUPPAUGE, NY — Greek Life students from Farmingdale State College are preparing for the 2023 Can-Castle competition at Long Island Cares in Hauppauge.
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The FSC students are set to deliver thousands of pounds of food to Long Island Cares on Wednesday and compete among themselves Thursday. Students will build structures out of canned foods, which will be judged by Long Island Cares staff. The food will then be donated, while the students volunteer at the food bank for two days. The competition is not open to the public.
The 2023 theme is “reality TV.”
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“Advocacy and giving are essential to the success of the regional food bank,” Dr. Jessica Rosati, vice president of programs at Long Island Cares, told Patch. “Farmingdale State College students understand the importance of bringing awareness to food insecurity and poverty.”
Long Island Cares’s Center for Community Engagement served as a great location for students to give back and to create, Rosati said. The initial Can-Castle was a success, she added.
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“The entire experience was so well received by students that Farmingdale committed to continuing to support Long Island Cares with this great initiative,” Rosati said. “At a time when Long Island is seeing increases to participants utilizing the emergency food network, coupled with the rise in costs of goods have severely impacted Long Islanders in need of food. Events like this generate a sense of joy and accomplishment to an issue so very severe. We are grateful for the support of Farmingdale and look forward to our partnership continuing to flourish.”
In 2022, more than 36,000 pounds of food were donated, as 81 students volunteered a total of 453 hours in the warehouse. Last year’s theme was superheroes.
In 2022, there was an “alarming” year-over-year increase in hunger and food insecurity on Long Island, Rosati previously told Patch.
Last year, Long Island Cares distributed 1,041,765 meals to 115,699 visitors, some of whom were repeats, at its five satellites across the island. In 2021, those numbers were 647,844 meals given to 73,896 visitors. The food bank handed out 60 percent more meals last year than in 2021.
Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness in our local communities of hunger, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country, estimates that nearly 34 million people, including 9 million children — about 1 in 6 Americans — are living with food insecurity. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.
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