_______ Malverne/West HeMpstead ______
HERALD Also serving Lakeview
Victorious Homecoming
Students donate to cancer
Village-wide garage sale
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Vol. 31 No. 42
oCToBER 10 - 16, 2024
$1.00
Troop 1403 Scout earns Gold Award establishing a nonprofit organization or developing educationa l m a t e r i a l s f o r s c h o o l s. The Girl Scouts of Nassau Throughout the process, idealCounty recently honored 51 ly, she becomes an innovative scouts who have earned Gold problem-solver and a confident Awards this year, recognizing leader, gaining essential skills their positive impacts on their that prepare her for personal communities. Among them was and professional success. Poligadu, 17, is now a freshAaralyn Poligadu, of West man at Seton Hall Hempstead, a memU n iv e r s i t y. S h e ber of Troop 1403. knew from the The Gold Award is beginning that she the highest honor a wanted to use her G i rl S c o u t c a n project to positively attain. impact children, so “Every Girl she focused on raisScout who earned ing their awareness their Gold Award of the challenges this year demonof keeping exotic strated remarkable animals as pets. To resilience, dedicado so, she authored tion, and passion in a children’s book, tackling societal “Katie and Marlow challenges,” Rande AARAlYN the Monkey,” which Bynum, chief exectells the story of a utive of Girl Scouts PolIGAdU girl caring for an of Nassau County, West Hempstead e x o t i c m o n k e y. s a i d . “ We a r e Poligadu also creatimmensely proud of each one for achieving their ed a website and conducted goals and making lasting workshops on the safety and impacts in their communities. responsible care of exotic aniThis year, our Girl Scouts mals, offering guidance on addressed critical issues such their unique nutritional and as environmental justice, men- living requirements. The process a creating a tal health, and gender equality in sports. We applaud their sig- manuscript was new to her, but she jumped into it. “I had to do nificant contributions.” A high school Girl Scout a lot of research on how to crebegins her Gold Award journey ate each part of the book,” she by identifying a civic or social said. “In the end, I’m really issue that matters to her. She happy I did that. I’m not really then builds a team to support an illustrator. I used a website her project, which is intended which allowed me to formulate to have a lasting impact on her books and format them. I went community — for instance, by ContinueD on pAGe 7
By TAYloR GRAYSoN
tgrayson@liherald.com
I
Tim Baker/Herald
Michael D’Angelo, a farmer and the operations manager of Crossroads Farm at Grossman’s.
Crossroads Farm helps redefines hospital dining By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
The underwhelming caliber of most hospital food is, for Russell Ficke, a problem worth solving. So, for the past five years, Ficke, the executive chef at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital, and his staff have been working to ensure that everything that leaves the hospital’s kitchen is restaurant-quality fare. His meals not only use fresh, organic ingredients, but are also tailored to meet each patient’s dietary needs. “Hospital food has a bad reputation,” Ficke said. “We’ve been trying to work on the quality of the food by doing local, fresh and
organic wherever possible, because we believe that food is medicine.” LIJ has recently teamed up with Crossroads Farm at Grossmann’s, in Malverne, in a farm-to-hospital partnership. Each week, the farm delivers 100 to 300 pounds of fresh, seasonal produce to the hospital for patients’ meals. “We’ve been getting a lot of tomatoes, so I’ve been making tomato sauce,” Ficke said. So far, the deliveries have mostly comprised Crossroads’ surplus produce, but, Ficke explained, “Next season, it will look more like a 50-50 partnership, where I’ll request specific items for them to grow for the menu.” Michael D’Angelo, the farm’s operations ContinueD on pAGe 2
believe it was so worth it because I learned so much, including how to be independent.