Nassau
HERALD All the News of the Five Towns
Bowling alleys, gyms reopen
Michael Cohen writes on Trump
Hewlett grad runs an art camp
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Vol. 97 No. 34
AUGUST 20 - 26, 2020
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Aiming to ‘bridge the gap’ Community Center partners with Nassau County PAL nity center: a performing arts program, a robotics club and the Explorer program, which will Looking to reap the benefits send young people who are interof improved relations between ested in careers in law enforcepolice officers and ment to a training local residents, the facility in Mineola. Five Towns ComK. Brent Hill, the munity Center, in center’s executive Lawrence, is partdirector, said that nering with the partnering with the Nassau County NCPD has been a Police Department topic of discussion t o b r i n g Po l i c e at the center for a Activity Lea gue few months. “We’re programs to the strong advocates of center by the end of youth development, the fall. and we’re happy The Nassau that Commissioner County PAL, which [ Pat r i ck ] Ryd e r operates in 40 comchose to partner munities, is a taxwith us,” Hill said. exempt, nonprofit “We’re really excitorganization opered to take a holistic ated by an execu- K. BRENT HIll approach to leading tive board and a Executive director, young people to board of trustees. Five Towns where their desires The NCPD provides are. The great thing Community Center officers to oversee about the program the PAL units and is that the PAL are to establish a rapport with the providing the resources for this.” youngsters in those communiSasha Young is the founder of ties. Gammy’s Pantry, a food bank While PAL usually includes run by the center. She is also the youth sports leagues such as head of its youth advocacy. football, basketball and soccer, Young said she was excited there will also be non-sports activities offered at the commuContinued on page 9
By MATTHEW FERREMI mferremi@liherald.com
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Jeffrey Bessen/Herald
THE Food dISTRIBUTIoN setup at the Broadway Campus, with Lawrence School District and Elite Caterers partnering to provide food to Five Towners and residents of surrounding communities.
Getting food to those in need By JEFFREY BESSEN jbessen@liherald.com
Shlomo Katz, of Lawrence, was raised by parents who preached that giving back to the community meant more than donating money — it also means offering your time —and he has taken that lesson to heart. “My family is actively involved in Hatzalah for many, many years, and we’ve run the Passover Tomshei Shabbos food distribution from our kitchen for the last 30 years,” Katz, an owner of the Lawrence-based Elite Caterers, said in the parking lot of Lawrence School District’s Broadway Campus on
Aug. 12. “So, I’ve been in these houses where there is food insecurity, and it’s just amazing to see what helping another person can do and what’s it like.” Katz and roughly 50 of his employees are now working in conjunction with the school district to provide up to 21,000 households with enough food every Wednesday for seven breakfasts and seven lunches for a family. Since May, when the district and Elite signed a contract, $3 million worth of food has been distributed to residents of the Five Towns and surrounding communities, including Far Rockaway, Mer-
rick, Oceanside, Uniondale and West Hempstead, according to Jeremy Feder, the school district’s assistant superintendent for operations and business. “The federal government, and, by extension, New York state, mandated that students should be eating,” Feder said, referring to the shutdown of schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. “We started right as the pandemic, and Lawrence [School District] was very quick to get going. In the middle of May, we expanded the Whitsons’ food distribution to include a kosher option. We reached out to Continued on page 9
hen looking at this partnership in the long term, I think it can help bridge the gap between law enforcement and community.