Brentwood schools to donate excess food to community fridges

The Brentwood Union Free School District has formed a partnership with Eileen’s Free Bodega, the grassroots organization behind Brentwood’s community fridges, to donate excess food from the district’s cafeterias. 

The school district began donating food this week to the two community fridges, which offer free food 24/7 at the Salvadoran Consulate at 151 Alkier St. and Christ Episcopal Church at 155 Third Ave., both in Brentwood. Superintendent Richard Loeschner said the district will likely donate more food when the academic year begins in September, but until then, leftovers from the summer meal program will fill the fridges.

“We’ll be able to send over a fair amount of food that otherwise, potentially, would have been wasted,” he said.

Sweeney founded Long Island’s first community refrigerator over a year ago and added a second one in March to offer a safety net for Long Islanders lacking food security. She was introduced to Loeschner by Ben Carenza, the director of Teamsters Local 237, which represents Brentwood school district employees, including cafeteria workers. Carenza said helping the community is a core value of the union. 

“It’s a shame to see anything go to waste,” Carenza said. “You have people out there looking for food.” 

Brentwood High School rising freshman Andres Rodriguez, 15, has started collecting the excess food to bring to the fridges with classmates. After posting about the donations on Facebook, the teenager said he received messages of support and inquiries seeking ways to help.

“This is how everything starts: one person starts it and then many others [get involved],” he said. 

The different people involved in forming and maintaining the district partnership is a glimpse of the support it takes to fill the fridges. Eileen’s Free Bodega has found tremendous community support similar to that of the school district, Sweeney said. Donations have poured in from residents, but also from Brentwood farms, such as Napolitano Family Farm, People’s Food Forest and the Sisters of St. Joseph, and food bank Long Island Cares. 

And as more food comes into the fridges, more goes out. Sweeney said she’s unsure how many people frequent the fridges but estimates the fridges are feeding hundreds each month. The financial pinch from inflation is probably pushing more people to seek free meals, she said. Although Loeschner didn’t have figures on the number of children in the district battling food insecurity, he said at least 80% of students were eligible for free and reduced lunch. 

“It feels amazing,” Sweeney said of the district partnership. “Realistically, I didn't imagine it could go this far. I thought we’d have a fridge and put food in it and that’s that. The progress ... is amazing.”

For more information, visit Eileen's Free Bodega on Instagram at eileensfreebodega_. 

By Brinley Hineman

brinley.hineman@newsday.com

Brinley Hineman covers the Town of Hempstead and the City of Long Beach for Newsday. She previously was a reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a West Virginia native.