When people with truly good intentions come together and join forces, good things happen.
Angels of Long Island, a thrift store on a mission, and a new second location at 14 Herkimer Street in Mastic has collided with Ryan Carroll of Carroll’s Kitchen on a mission of his own.
Ryan, in honor of his “Nan,” is using his professional culinary skills, his own resources and his love of all people to initiate an emergency food bank in Mastic. Angels, located in an area that would be well served by both, will now also become Carroll’s Kitchen headquarters and the perfect setup to host this emergency food bank.
Angels of L.I. is run by Debbie Loesch and her daughter Brittany. The Messenger has previously covered them in recognition of their great work.
To add to their impressiveness, Brittany, a young wife and mother herself, does this all with five small children.
On Tuesday, September 19, Angels hosted their second annual Diaper Distribution Day, a day when local residents are welcome to come and shop for free from a parking lot full of baby items. They hosted this along with the Allied Foundation, another valuable organization dedicated to keeping communities healthy.
This year, this event was expanded upon with Ryan and his team of “BBQ Dads”. This team built a farm stand that had fresh vegetables included in the giveaway. Ryan stood at the farm stand engaging with attendees, explaining the various vegetables he had brought and different ways to prepare them. The vegetables were bought from farms on Long Island’s North Fork. Ryan encouraged attendees to go on his website and watch his cooking and nutritional videos.
He and the BBQ Dads also provided an amazing hot lunch for all attendees. Delicious pulled pork, chicken, hot dogs and salads were served and many were wrapped nicely so guests could take leftovers home. This was simply the first step for Ryan Carroll, as he will be building these farm stands and strategically placing them in underserved communities where families are not eating well due to a myriad of circumstances.
As Ryan pointed out, when people are eating poorly, no matter what age, they do not thrive in other areas of their lives. As far as the emergency food bank, soon to be plural, he has already made arrangements with Island Harvest and LI Cares for assistance in keeping the food bank’s pantry well stocked.
On hand at this already great event to assist was Advocate Lavonia Scaggs. Lavonia runs a non-profit LWS Consulting and assists individuals in need addressing the real issues that may be keeping them from becoming more self-sustaining. Others present spoke with great respect about Lavonia and her ability to help in finding real solutions.
All of the aforementioned individuals and groups are truly doing good works. They are also all volunteers often using up their personal resources to get things done. Sometimes people scoff at the cliché “It takes a Village” but when the village comes together – everyone wins!
For more information, please check out the following websites and Facebook Pages. For Lavonia Scaggs please call 631-780-6877, extension 220 or email LWSconsulting@hotmail.com.
Find the other businesses at carrollskitchenlongisland.org, angelsoflongisland.com, alliedfoundation.org.
