The Long Island City School of Ballet has launched its first-ever holiday breakfast food drive to benefit the local nonprofit Hour Children, which operates a food pantry for people in need.
Items requested by the pantry are non-perishable, healthy breakfast foods including cereal, cocoa mix, jams and jellies, granola, oatmeal, canned fruit and boxed fruit juices.
“They told us that breakfast items like those are flying off the food pantries shelves,” a LICSB spokeswoman said. “We’ve been wanting to do more in the community for several years, and we want to help make sure no one in LIC is hungry for the holidays. All children should be able to wake up and have breakfast in their homes, especially during the holidays.”
The LICSB effort augments City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer’s 10th annual food drive which is also benefits Hour Children.
Participants may drop off food at any of the seven locations that have been designated around western Queens including Van Bramer’s district office located as 47-01 Queens Blvd. Suite 205 in Sunnyside, or at any of the Queens Public Library branches in his district including the new Hunters Point Library on Center Boulevard in Long Island City.
In 1986, Sister Tesa Fitzgerald helped develop a home in Long Island City for children whose mothers were incarcerated. She got to know the mothers when she brought their children to visit, and quickly realized that the women would need additional support if they were to successfully reunite with their children after their release.
Hour Children, incorporated in 1992, has since become a leading provider of family services to support women and children as they reunite, stabilize and transform their lives.
The Hour Children food pantry is located inside a gated parking lot on 11th Street between 36th and 37th Avenues. The LICBS will be collecting the breakfast food items at 44-02 23rd St. on the 2nd floor Monday through Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 to 11:00 a.m.
The food drive ends on Dec. 21 at noon.
