Plainview’s Peter Collins Soccer Park was the sight of a season-long charity effort this past fall, as the Long Island Junior Soccer League donated 1,130 pounds of food to Long Island Cares, Inc., The Harry Chapin Food Bank. The food was collected through donations by players, parents, coaches and spectators during the league’s food drive at the soccer park on Old Country Road throughout the 2013 fall season.
“On behalf of all of the children and families served by Long Island Cares, Elana Sissons, Food Drive Coordinator, and I are truly grateful for your support,” said Paule Pachter, executive director of Long Island Cares. “This donation will go a long way towards ensuring that more Long Island children and families do not go hungry.”
Long Island Cares has distributed more than six million pounds of food to over 500 member agencies across Long Island but also seeks to heighten public awareness about hunger and provides skills training to foster self-sufficiency among the population. Founded by singer Harry Chapin in 1980, a year before his untimely passing, their mission is a hunger-free Long Island.
Chapin’s mission to feed the hungry lived on at the soccer park, and the league was more than happy to participate in such a worthy cause.
“The Long Island Junior Soccer League is proud to partner with Long Island Cares in their fight against hunger,” said LIJSL president Addie Mattei-Iaia. “We are so grateful to all of our clubs, teams, players and families for their generosity. They have shown time and again that they are willing to go above and beyond, not only to be the best players they can be on the field, but to be the best people they can be off it.”
The LIJSL will be holding another food drive during the 2014 spring season. Donations will be accepted in the food collection barrels at the entrance to the Collins Soccer Park for games being played there starting on March 29 and concluding in June.
