People Loving People is working with a student-founded nonprofit to expand volunteer efforts and recover surplus food, bringing new energy to the fight against food insecurity in Oyster Bay and across Long Island.
The partnership between the People’s Pantry of Oyster Bay, run by People Loving People, and re:Serve, a nonprofit founded last fall by 17-year-old Jericho High School students Edwin Chen and Eason Chen, no relation, has connected dozens of student volunteers with local families while helping rescue food that otherwise might have gone to waste.
Since first connecting in early April, re:Serve has supplied volunteers and food donations to People Loving People’s pantries in Oyster Bay, Manhasset and Westbury, according to Executive Director Adriana Kennedy.
“They reached out because they wanted to connect with People Loving People for the opportunity to volunteer,” Kennedy said. “They’ve been at all three of our pantries: our Westbury, our Manhattan, and our Oyster Bay.”
re:Serve’s main service is recovering bakery items, fresh produce and other surplus food from restaurants and businesses for distribution through the pantry. Volunteers have also assisted with stocking shelves, packing groceries and helping families shop throughout the pantry, which operates as a client choice market rather than distributing prepacked bags.
For Edwin Chen, who is entering his senior year, the idea for re:Serve grew out of years of volunteering with a Tzu Chi, a Buddhist humanitarian organization that distributes food to hundreds of families every two weeks.
“I think that was kind of the spark for me,” he said. “How can I also make my impact and spread it to the greater Long Island using that kind of idea, where you can repurpose food waste and then also distribute it throughout Long Island?”
After launching re:Serve in October, Edwin and Eason spent months contacting businesses and nonprofit organizations before securing partnerships with restaurants and groceries that allowed the organization to begin operating.
“So, in the beginning, when we reached out to places, there was a little bit of a struggle because they wanted the other end of the organization to be a nonprofit or some sort of reputable-like name,” Edwin said. “We were just a student-led sort of club.”
Today, re:Serve includes about 70 student volunteers from schools across Long Island who help collect surplus food from businesses, organize food drives and volunteer at local pantries.
Eason Chen said his own inspiration came from helping at his father’s convenience store in Queens, where he regularly saw customers struggling to afford groceries.
“Seeing that day-to-day inspired me to create an initiative to address this sort of issue,” he said. “This food insecurity issue occurs all over the world. It’s not something unique to one place.”
The organization eventually connected with People Loving People through Shelter Rock Church in Syosset, opening the door to its work in Oyster Bay.
“We had the food, but we didn’t have a place to distribute all of this food,” Eason said. “We decided to reach out to organizations that have an existing site.”
Kennedy said the students’ enthusiasm has stood out from the beginning.
“I was very, very impressed that this is what they wanted to do,” she emphasized, “and it wasn’t a school project, or a need for community hours.”
She added that the students’ positive attitude has made a meaningful impression on both volunteers and the families who visit the pantry. Because the Oyster Bay pantry allows families to choose the groceries that best fit their needs, volunteers spend time guiding shoppers through the aisles and helping carry groceries.
“People loving people kind of run a very unique pantry,” Eason said. “Our volunteers have the opportunity to walk around and actually talk to these people, interact with these people while they were shopping.”
Edwin said the opportunity has also created new friendships among students who share a commitment to service.
Kennedy hopes the partnership also raises awareness that food insecurity remains a pressing issue on Long Island.
“They want people to know food insecurity is real,” she said. “These kids get it.”
Looking ahead, Eason said he and Edwin hope re:Serve continues growing long after they graduate from high school.
“We want to take that impact right and expand it across New York, and maybe in the future we want to expand to other states,” he said. “This impact continues through we graduate.”
For more information on People Loving People, visit peoplelovingpeople.net. For more information about re:Serve, visit ReServeInitiative.org
