During challenging times, Long Islanders have united to support each other. The COVID-19 crisis has people once again rising to the occasion to lend a helping hand and send smiles. One way they are doing that is through Facebook.

Several Facebook community groups have been created to fundraise and purchase meals through local restaurants and send meals to healthcare workers, first responders, and other essential employees. Donations benefit both the restaurants which may have lost business since they are unable to have dine-in customers, and the essential workers in their community, many who are hospital employees working long hours on the frontlines. Most monetary donations are accepted through Venmo or PayPal and the Facebook pages post donation updates as well as photos of the meals being delivered to the recipients.

The following are three Facebook community groups. Visit the pages to request to join.

Bellmore Merrick Helping Our Heroes

The goal of this group is to send food to local healthcare employees, police, firefighters, EMTs, and other essential workers to say thank you while supporting local restaurants and vendors. 

The Islips Feed the Southside Hospital Employees

This group collects money to feed the staff at Southside Hospital through local Islip-area restaurants.

Lemons to Lemonade

Lemons to Lemonade was created by two West Islip High School teachers to support the West Islip community, restaurants, business owners, and workers at Good Samaritan Hospital. With the donations, lunch and dinner will be ordered from local restaurants and delivered to the day and night healthcare staff at the hospital.