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Food Trucks For Good: LI Cares Offers Mobile Breakfast For Kids In Need

A golden truck will soon be rolling around Suffolk County, offering healthy meals to children in need. The food truck was introduced on Wednesday by the Long Island Cares food bank, which hopes to build on the success of its first food truck that launched last summer.

Jessica Rosati, chief programs officer with Long Island Cares, remembers the first time that the food truck hit the streets. “The kids went bananas and started running up to the truck, and was like ‘I want this, and I want that.’” 

It looks kind of like an ice cream truck, with a window on the side where kids can pick meals that include cereals, juices, low-fat milk, fresh fruit and healthy snacks.

Rosati says that since last summer, the food truck has served over 2,400 children.

The second truck is going to be based solely in Suffolk County. Rosati say she hopes it will allow the food bank to reach even more of the 70,000 children who struggle with hunger and food insecurity on Long Island.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone says that nearly 40 percent of Long Islanders who receive emergency food are under 18-years-old. Those children are more likely to have behavioral issues and impaired learning. 

“Their ability to be children and to just be doing what we expect children to do – to be happy and healthy and to grow up – that is so difficult to do if that most basic of needs is not met.”

The new breakfast food truck will stop in Amityville, Brentwood, Riverhead and Shirley.