Keith's Corner: Food and comfort

July is a busy month at Helping Makes U Happy—even the pandemic can’t slow us down!

As you can see, Keith is busy packing food and setting up comfort cases. The first week of July begins our fifth year of our Summer of Feeding the Families, preparing and delivering weekly boxes of nonperishables, fresh eggs, bread and vegetables for 35 families referred to us by the schools. We are very grateful for the help we’ve been offered by local businesses, specifically Netties Bakery (bread), Carlos Pizza (pasta), Lucharitos (vegetables), some members of the Eastport Green Project (vegetables), and the Angels of Long Island (nonperishables). We are also so thankful for the community members who always come to our aid with food drives, fresh eggs, donations of various items, and offers to box and/or deliver the food to the families. It truly takes a village, and to be honest we were a little worried about how we’d accomplish it all this year, but it’s clear that the pandemic hasn’t affected the helping hearts in our communities!

If anyone is interested in donating nonperishables or surplus fresh vegetables or eggs, please give us a call at 631-848-9008, or just leave them in our beautiful new Eagle Scout Project drop-box at the HMUH building at 1 Neville St., Center Moriches.

We’ve been asked by local groups if we have any upcoming volunteer opportunities and the answer is yes! We will be getting in some masks to tie-dye, so let us know if you’d like to be involved in doing that at home. We’ll also be putting together a quick “Summer Staycation” raffle in the next couple weeks, which will include items families can enter to win to make their summer more enjoyable. Watch for more information about that in flyers around town, at the building, and on our Facebook page and website.

Lastly, we will also start collecting items to supplement the comfort cases we put together each year: a throw-size blanket or fleece, a small toy, journals and/or toiletries. We put these in new backpacks and they are delivered to boys and girls who have been removed from their homes due to neglect. For the last few years, we have donated 250 each year and believe me, sadly, that doesn’t cover all the children.

Thank you again for all you do to help us keep helping others. We wish you all a happy and safe Fourth of July!