The 2011 Annual Meeting was held at Smithtown Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, and hosted by Senior Pastor Rev. Jimmy Hulsey, who is also the chair of our Development/Event Committee. The event began at 11AM with registration and coffee, followed by the annual business meeting, lunch, and awards.

Each year we conduct a panel discussion on a topic that relates to our ministry to serve Long Islanders in need. This year's panelists were Randi Shubin Dresner, President & C.E.O. of Island Harvest, and Paule T. Pachter, Executive Director of Long Island Cares, Inc. They shared their agencies' recent successes in meeting the needs of hungry Long Islanders.

Randi gave an example of a current program they are doing to raise awareness of hunger among young people. Her agency, Island Harvest, does coin campaigns in the schools to teach kids the importance of giving while they also learn about hunger and how serious it is on Long Island. When they were first planning the campaign, they were concerned that talking about hunger might scare the kids, but they quickly discovered that the kids were eager to learn about hunger and learn how they could help.

LICC Executive Director the Rev. Tom Goodhue M.C.'d the discussion and asked, "How do you do advocacy and push for public policy reform?" Randi talked about MICAH (Mobilized Interfaith Coalition Against Hunger) which her agency took over from us, whose members have successfully advocated for support to alleviate child hunger. MICAH is hosting an all-day hunger conference on May 17th with the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the keynote speaker. MICAH's goal is to address the root causes of hunger. Currently, 270 congregations are MICAH members. Island Harvest distributes about 13 million lbs. of food annually.

Paule Pachter, Executive Director of Long Island Cares, Inc., considers Client Choice to be a successful solution to alleviating hunger, noting that his agency introduced it on Long Island. L.I. Cares has a major focus on capacity building, which he defines as the ability to move more food into LI Cares' agencies and to increase member agencies' capacity to feed people. They also opened separate food pantries in Hauppauge and in Freeport. Paule thinks Client Choice is successful because it meets the needs of the very diverse populations we all serve, including the homeless, veterans, immigrants, etc. It also responds to peoples' medical needs and cultural differences, and has reduced the feelings of stigma experienced by people we serve by allowing them to make their own choices. Paule said there are several models of Client Choice: 1) supermarket - where you put food on the shelves and let people choose; 2) Put food out on a table; 3) Display the food and then people choose what they want, the staff goes to the back and packages it and gives it to the clients.

Paule said they have also been very successful with their new mobile pantries that also came out of capacity-building needs. Each mobile unit has 500 lbs. of pantry food on board. They serve 560 community-based agencies. They also have store front operations so outsiders won't know it's a food pantry and people can preserve their dignity when they come for help. He noted that although L.I. Cares has offered to provide more food to its agencies, 80% of them turned him down because they didn't have the space or didn't have the funds to distribute the additional food. More than 300,000 people in our region need help from all of us.

Paule has a concern with volunteers aging out, so they started a student volunteer program where they're training the kids and sending them out to volunteer in their communities. LI Cares also distributes pet food - it's all donated.

Randi said her agency can shift products from one member agency to another according to the need, and advised that we do not take products we don't need. She said 110,000 children rely on food pantries on Long Island. Both agencies have weekend backpack food programs for kids who depend on schools for food during the week. It's made a big difference in helping the kids get through the weekend. Island Harvest also visits seniors weekly where they live, distributing 4,000 lbs. on each weekly visit to the senior communities. Her agency also trains disabled people to distribute food, and they are thrilled to be able to help while they're getting help.

Tom noted that reducing stress level has been a very positive result of the LICC's Client Choice program. And when we began telling our guests they could come back when they need to instead of waiting an entire month, we found that their stress level was greatly reduced and that they came back only for specific items they needed. Although we haven't yet rolled out a full Client Choice program in Riverhead, we put food on tables that people can take. To preserve their dignity, we also tell them they can pick up food for their neighbors (even if it's for themselves).

We thank our keynotes speakers and invite you to visit their websites or contact them directly.

Ms. Randi Shubin Dresner, President & C.E.O. Island Harvest 199 Second Street Mineola, NY 11501 Tel. # 516-294-8528 www.islandharvest.org

Paule T. Pachter, Executive Director Long Island Cares, Inc. 10 Davids Drive Hauppauge, NY 11788-2039 Tel # 631-582-FOOD www.licares.org