helping-hands-rescue-mission

When Help Is Paused

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 02:06:01 GMT

When Help Is Paused...What the SNAP Benefit Interruption Means For Our Community

When Help Is Paused: What the SNAP Benefit Interruption Means for Our Community

This coming week, many families in our Huntington Township community will be facing new uncertainty. With the coming pause in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, the struggle to put food on the table will grow even heavier for thousands of Long Island households — families who were already working hard to make ends meet.

At the Helping Hand Rescue Mission, we’ve already seen the impact. Our pantry lines are growing longer. Families are reaching out, not knowing how they’ll stretch what they have. The worry in their eyes says it all: “What will we do now?”

The Local Impact

For many in our community, SNAP is a lifeline — not a luxury. It helps families bridge the gap between paychecks, keeps children fed, and allows seniors on fixed incomes to buy the basics. When that help is paused, even briefly, the effects are immediate and painful:

Empty shelves in homes by mid-month.

Parents skipping meals so their children can eat.

Increased anxiety about bills, groceries, and how to get through the week.

This is not just about food — it’s about dignity, stability, and hope.

A Personal Reflection

As I walk through our pantry on a busy day, I’m always moved by what I see: volunteers greeting families with kindness, neighbors helping neighbors, children smiling when they receive fresh fruit or a favorite snack. Those small moments of joy are powerful reminders that compassion changes everything.

When I think about this SNAP pause, my heart aches for the families who now face yet another challenge. But I also feel deep gratitude — because I know how our community responds in times like this. Over the years, I’ve seen Huntington Township come together again and again when our neighbors needed us most.

I think of our founders, my parents Rose Marie and Jim Gaines, and my grandmother Florence Meringola, and the way they always believed that when people come together in love, miracles happen. That same spirit still fills our building today. It gives me faith that, once again, we will rise to meet the need before us — together.

How You Can Help Right Now

If you’ve been wondering what you can do to help during this difficult time, here are some meaningful ways to make an immediate difference:

Give to Our Food Pantry & Family Meal Fund

Financial gifts help us purchase fresh produce, milk, eggs, meat, and other essentials that families rely on each week. Every donation matters.

Donate Non-Perishable Foods

Canned goods, cereal, rice, pasta, peanut butter, and soups are always needed. Drop off donations during our open hours, Monday 10-2pm, Tuesday-Friday 10-4 and Saturdays 9-1pm — or organize a collection with your school, church, temple, workplace, organization or group.

Volunteer Your Time

Whether packing boxes, helping families at the pantry, or sorting donations, your time and presence mean more than you know.

Spread the Word

Share about our mission on social media, share this blog post, tell friends and neighbors, and help connect those in need to our pantry. Sometimes the greatest gift is simply letting someone know where they can find help.

Standing Together

The Helping Hand Rescue Mission has served the Huntington Township community for 60 years. Through every hardship — from storms to shutdowns to pandemics — we’ve seen the same truth: love in action makes a difference.

The SNAP pause may be temporary, but hunger is not. We are preparing to meet this increased need, but we can’t do it alone. Together, we can make sure every family that turns to us finds food, compassion, and hope. We have faith to believe that God always provides and that His love never fails.

Thank you for standing with us — for believing, giving, and serving so that no one in Huntington Township goes hungry.

With love and gratitude,

Kim Gambino

President

Helping Hand Rescue Mission

"Finding Her Smile Again: 'Carmen's' Journey to the Food Pantry Window"

mariannacava@hhrm.org (Marianna Cava) — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 22:09:36 GMT

How One Woman's Courage Led Her to Seek Support and Rediscover Community

“Carmen”* was not very happy when she walked through our doors.

Can’t fault her. Most people, when they visit a food pantry for the first time ever, are not overwhelmingly excited to be visiting our fine bastion of compassion, service, and cleanly executed organized chaos for distribution hours. Everyone wants to bring a bag of food to a pantry, no one wants to take one home.

It was little after 11AM on a distribution day, and we were hopping with foot traffic for the community closet and pantry in the parking lot. I was stealing a second in the front office, trying to answer the perpetually ringing phone while distracted by several other open tasks. A couple of our incredible volunteers were helping me bang out gift bags for a community event that was starting in less than an hour at the table in the back of the building. A group of volunteers with developmental disabilities was working at the same table to fold some newsletters—they’re great at it, and I was conducting a fragmented conversation with one of the gentlemen from their group on and off while I ran in and out of the room. I was in and out—to the parking lot pod for water bottles, to the pantry for a couple more soaps for the gift bags, to the office for this email that was supposed to be sent yesterday—Our Spring Into Easter Celebration registration card file had not sent over to the printer correctly, so we were a day behind on that.

The check-in line had our team of volunteers sorting clothing, directing traffic, manning the produce table, and running items back and forth and in and out of the building. One of our core operations leads had been pulled out by a family emergency for the day, and the office phone was ringing off the hook. And Carmen was at the front window of the office, looking not so happy, and clearly waiting to speak to someone. I gestured wildly for her to wait, trying to scribble down a message from the caller on the phone and finishing up the call.

Never a dull moment here at Helping Hand.

I walked over to the window to talk to Carmen.

It was her first time here. She asked (frustratedly) about our services. I endeavored to explain them to her, convinced she was not listening to me by the way she interrupted me several times.

At this point, I hit a state of zen. She was having a rough day. I saw that. I’d had enough rough days of my own. I wasn’t about to jump on the bandwagon, drive the conversation off a cliff, and crash it in a gully of stiff words and barely-sheathed glares. Because the whole machine of volunteers, donors, operations procedures, every bit of energy flying around the Mission was for her, after all. For Carmen.

It would be kind of self-defeating if we put so much of our back into spinning the plates we had spinning all over the building in those minutes just to dismiss a person we were here to serve. Especially over something so normal, so understandable, as being frustrated and defensive about needing to come to a food pantry. I decided if I just shut up, Carmen would probably explain what she wanted, and then I would know how to help her get it.

Turns out Carmen was a very cool person. She had an immaculate sense of style. She’d done everything she could in her life to be independent, but circumstances out of her control had changed. She had a son, who she clearly adored and listened to, who convinced her to come visit us. She was nervous. I was able to slow down, and explain our food pantry services in a way that was actually useful and made sense to her.

“Thank you,” she said simply.

She smiled at me. I was stunned at her graciousness—that was the sort of smile I usually reserved for very good friends, and only when they made me very, very happy. Its worth was far greater than the teaspoon of information and patience I’d offered her, a completely uneven trade. Apparently, Carmen was in the top one percentile for radiant, beautifully real smiles. Hers reached up all the way into the depths of her eyes, stunning, whole, and complete. What a cool person. Most people don’t have the nerve to smile like that, to show so much on their face. I immediately registered a new goal for my roster—I wanted to have a smile like that, and I wanted to give it away more freely: to random strangers in offices I don’t want to be at while I’m having a bad day.

And the momentary frustration of meeting people where they are, in exchange for real connection with them? That’s a deal I’ll strike any day of the week. Respect to Carmen for doing the same.

*Carmen’s name and minor details of this story have been changed to protect confidentiality

Reflection & Preparation For What's To Come

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 20:28:01 GMT

When I think back to this time last year, we were prepared for a usual year, 2020 but what was in store for our community was far from usual.

We had our calendar planned, outreaches scheduled, offices hours planned, volunteer positions created, seasonal boutique fundraisers that help to support our mission were being prepared for and seasonal donation initiatives were planned like Back To School, Easter Baskets, Summer Family Fun Days. We were keeping busy and happy to be of service.

Then COVID came! I can remember last January watching the news with my husband Andrew. We were seeing footage from China and I remarked that I couldn't imagine having to wear a mask every day like they were. Little did I know that just 2 months later that would be an everyday practice for us.

If you've followed our story you know that we have come a long way in a year. We have served three times the number of families as in a usual prior year. It's been a huge blessing to have the needed funds coming in monthly to make the purchases necessary to help our community. We had help with purchasing a new van that makes it possible for us to pick up large quantities of food and product and make deliveries. Signarama and some friends donated the "wrap" so it looks really nice. It's like a rolling billboard. We are so happy to have it.

We had some unexpected structural and maintenance issues with our buildings that were really serious and those have been taken care of. We are planning to work on our kitchen and dining room building next. It is over 35 years old and is just OLD. You can clean it and clean it and it still looks old. It needs some updates to make it more compliant and functional in different ways. We would like to try and move the kitchen to the back space of the building and open up more seating so that when the time comes to serve we will be able to do it well. That will take a commercial architect to plan, approval by the Suffolk County Health Department. We won't be adding to the building just rearranging the inside space. We are in the beginning stages of just talking about it. Please keep that in your prayers. It's a pretty big undertaking and we will keep you posted as we know more.

We are not planning to add more new programs to our mission this year but will work to ADD VALUE to our existing core programs. Our Food Pantry will continue to serve the community 4 days a week, Tuesday, Friday 11-1pm. and we are excited to add a "Fill A Bag-Feed A Family" component, engaging our community in filling bags with food for our distributions instead of just doing "food drives". We will be posting our list soon. It's kind of exciting. More details will follow:)

Baby Blessings will continue monthly at Huntington Assembly on the third Tuesday of each month. We are currently helping around 110 babies each month with diapers, wipes, clothing formula as needed and limited amounts of baby furnishings, car seats, strollers etc (not older than 3 years for safety reasons)

We will suspend those larger items for January and February because it is VERY cold outside and hard to distribute those items quickly. We will source out items as requested by families and will post those needs as they arise.

Drew's Birthday Angels! We have always given out Birthday Bags to our mission kids and they always light up when they receive a bag with a cake mix, icing, birthday cups, plates, table cloths, favors and goodies. We will be adding value to this program this year by partnering with Deeds for Drew #deeds4drew Johann Nugent and family. to provide Drew's Birthday Angels. Johanna has provided an online form that local families in need can fill out and request a birthday wish (toy, etc). That will be added to the birthday bag that the child receives from HHRM giving the child an EXTRA SPECIAL birthday.

Weekly Hot Drive Thru meals will begin again on 1/20/21 at Huntington Assembly via drive thru. Meals are purchased from local restaurants with funds raised and they are distributed via contact free drive thru as supplies last. We are hoping to start with 500-700 meals per week. We'd like to do more as God provides. To date over 22,000 meals have been provided in partnership with other organizations.

A WINTER CLOTHING DRIVE will begin on January 18, 2021. Functional family clothing will be accepted at HHRM during donation hours. Clothing must be washed and in clear plastic bags or on hangers (that's the easiest way to process and distribute) Donation hours for this will begin 1/18 10-2pm and Tuesday-Friday 10-11 or 1-4pm Saturday 10-1pm. BUT NOT UNTIL 1/18 PLEASE.

We are not scheduling any boutique fundraisers at this time and will progress towards Easter baskets again, something special for Mother's Day-gotta remember those mama's holding it all together! Father's Day-those daddy's too, of course a Summer Clothing Distribution will be planned, Back to School backpacks and then the holidays will roll around on our calendar again.

Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support. We are so happy to be able to be here for the families that need our support, food, supplies and love.

We pray every day for God's provision, protection, grace and so much love to be evident in all that we do. We are grateful for those who are helping us, volunteering, working alongside near and far. We could not do what we do with out this support.

I remember a mom looking straight in my eyes. "What would we do without the mission? You have helped us so much with everything. God bless you." Another mom brought us fresh tamales on New Year's Eve and an orchid. "Thank you for all that you do to help. These are tamales for your New Year." Precious expressions of love multiplied back to us are an incredible blessing.

Thank you again for understanding the heart and soul of HHRM.

Serving Together,

Kim Gambino

"But they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint." From the book of Isaiah.

MOVING FORWARD.

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 19:28:55 GMT

Wow! September 1st! It's hard to believe that the end of summer is almost here.

Back in March someone asked me if I thought we'd be wearing masks through June and having the increased food pantry numbers etc. I said, "As much as I'd like to think that it will be over so soon, we are anticipating this extended need to be at least through the fall months. We are going to prepare to serve the community should that happen. We want to be here to support our families' needs." I'm so glad that that is what we planned for because we're still wearing masks and social distancing. Though the numbers are down considerably from the spring when were were serving 500+ families a week, we are still serving about 3x's the usual average number of weekly pantry clients at 225-250 families/week. So, we're still busy. Not "crazy busy" but "busy busy". lol.

Last week was WONDERFUL as we partnered with Family Service League, The Junior Welfare League, Tri-CYA, the Town of Huntington, Friends of the Huntington Station Latin Quarter and local churches including Island Christian Church, St Luke Lutheran Church & Dix Hills Evangelical Free Church to provide new backpacks and supplies to 1,`126 local children. There were so many wonderful volunteers and we are so grateful to have had this opportunity to serve together. We are completing our waiting list this week and will continue to give out school supplies as needs arise etc. It's always great to move forward to what is next knowing that a previous project has been completed well!

We are preparing for our annual FALL FAMILY CLOTHING DISTRIBUTION which will be September 30-October 3rd. We are making every preparation to have a safe, COVID guidelines compliant, encouraging, practical distribution that will provide FUNCTIONAL everyday clothes for families. We'd love to add new socks and underwear to that list so we'll be posting an AMAZON wishlist and have a drop off box at HHRM for those items. Families will be scheduled by 20 minute appointment (In person registration will begin 9/7/20 at HHRM) We will be posting volunteer needs for the set up and event. We'd love to have you join with us and help give out clothing to some beautiful families.

What are our current needs? The food need is ongoing. We'd like to continue giving out fruits and vegetables which we received in abundance from Dan Diviney through PROJECT HOPE throughout the summer. We are waiting to see if another grant will come through for those items or if we will be purchasing them weekly. Milk prices have increased making it difficult for us to purchase weekly. If anyone has a contact for milk we can use 200-300 1/2 gallons per week. We'd be happy to purchase at a reasonable price. We are still giving out fresh eggs which Project Hope has been providing as well as items received from Makinajian Farms and Target. Local neighbors have also been providing produce from their gardens and we appreciate that so much!

You can help to support our food pantry by bringing in non-perishables, hosting a food drive at your home or place of business, making a donation to sponsor a food pantry bag or two or ten:) Helping to volunteer as the needs arise. You can find a list of needed pantry items on our website under the "Food Pantry Needs" tab.

You can also help to support our mission by making a donation through our website or with no fee on our Facebook page Helping Hand Rescue Mission. You can pray for us or send us some encouraging words which mean so much!

We're planning for our annual Thanksgiving food basket and turkey distribution and our holiday Christmas celebration though due to COVID-19 these events may look a little different this year. We can still share these celebrations and share God's love and the message that He came to bring PEACE on Earth!

Isn't that a wonderful message?

We pray for God's peace that passes all understanding to be present over our community, city, nation and world. We pray for our leaders and ask God to give them wisdom as they lead. We pray provision and protection over HHRM, those who serve with us and those that we serve. We pray for divine direction as we plan and go about our daily work. We pray for love to be over all that we do and that His love will motivate our hearts towards greater service and a wonderful season of giving.

We will continue to MOVE FORWARD in the days ahead. Sometimes it may feel like baby steps but FORWARD Is FORWARD and we are MOVING.

Serving Together,

Kim Gambino, President HHRM