Seaford resident serves with kindness at Long Island Cares

This is part two of a series about Seaford residents who provide assistance at Long Island Cares.

Seaford resident Debbie Mirer has displayed hard work while performing all of her tasks with kindness at the food bank run by Long Island Cares.

Mirer, who has worked with the organization’s independent support services, a special needs program, for 18 years, has teamed up with Matthew Magilavy, who has autism, as volunteers to assist clients at the food bank.

Long Island Cares Inc. is a food bank with 200 sites scattered throughout the U.S. and is dedicated to feeding individuals and families in their communities.

In 2016, Mirer was looking for volunteer work to keep Magilavy, who she met through the special needs program, busy, when she passed by the organization’s Huntington location and saw it needed volunteers. After doing some research, Mirer found the food pantry to be a great outlet to keep Magilavy engaged and active. Once they filled out the necessary paperwork, the two have volunteered there every week since then ¾ and have loved it.

Their volunteer work includes a variety of different tasks, such as restocking shelves and picking up deliveries to be placed in the stockroom. The most important part of their job, Mirer said, is assisting customers in a mini-supermarket. The two would take customers down each aisle and show them the food they have on their shelves.

Mirer spoke fondly of Magilavy and the assistance he provides at the food bank. With careful direction, Magilavy helps the clients on their way to a happy home and good food to eat.

Long Island Cares’ mission has remained combating food waste, food insecurities, and food sensitivities through the use of its food banks.

Harrison Smith, the organization’s satellite and disaster relief coordinator, spoke about ways to get customers to buy food by presenting them with recipes to try in the kitchen. Smith said he has been paying careful attention to feedback from clients, finding it to be essential to the growth and communication between clients in the food bank.

“It’s a combination of everything,” Mirer said. “They don’t have just one food, they have protein, they have grains, they have vegetables, fruits. We also have our own food garden in the Huntington site. It’s not one particular thing, they’re in need of everything.”

Mirer also spoke about the importance of receiving donations, such as pasta, milk, cheese and dairy products, which help the bank immensely. The food bank also provides kitchen supplies, which especially serve a purpose on the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Some of these donations come from big corporations that share the same cause as Long Island Cares.

Having experienced it first-hand, Mirer has seen people struggle with food insecurity on Long Island since the pandemic. Some days, she said, homeless people arrive at the food bank seeking assistance.

Seeing how many people come in for food for different reasons has made her sad, she said, but it reminds her why volunteers are needed and how important their job is to those in need. Volunteering has also taught Mirer the meaning of kindness and giving back.

“When Debbie comes in and organizes the stockroom, I think the work that she’s done in that sense is outstanding,” Smith said. “She’s become the unofficial go-to organizer of the stockroom, because of the way that she puts everything together and makes everything accessible. I really appreciate that she does it.”

In addition, every Wednesday, Mirer goes to the food bank’s Bethpage location with Magilavy to pick up plastics to be recycled and turned into public benches. She also brings in donations for the Thanksgiving dinners and picks up food supplies when they’re low in stock at the supermarket. When she arrives at the food bank, Mirer said she is always ready to help the pantry and its clients.

Sing-songwriter Harry Chapin, the inspiration behind the food banks’ mission, died 43 years ago, but his work still stands because of dedicated people like Mirer.

“Harry Chapin started this years ago because of food insecurity, for anyone having a problem with having food on their table and not being able to feed their family,’’ Mirer said. “That’s their basic mission: to help families in need of food.”