Library’s ‘food for fines’ project delivers for veterans

Riverhead Free Library’s “food for fines” project, now in its sixth year, is a month-long amnesty program for patrons with overdue books and other items that forgives fines in exchange for donations of nonperishable food items.

The brainchild of circulation director Liz Stokes, “food for fines” has collected thousands of pounds of food, which is donated to area shelters and food pantries.

Stokes says the outpouring of support for the project among library patrons and the broader community has been astounding.

“People donate much more than they need to give to wipe out their fines. People donate who don’t even owe fines,” Stokes said. “It’s really great.”

This year, Stokes had the idea to marry the innovative feed-the-needy program with another one of her passions: helping veterans. So she decided to make Suffolk County United Veterans, an organization dedicated to helping veterans in need, including growing population of homeless vets, a beneficiary of the project.

The result: More than 1,000 food items, blankets, comforters and quilts — some handmade — that were piled up several feet high today on the sidewalk outside the library. Two Suffolk County United Veterans vans arrived to accept the donated food and dry goods.

“We are so thrilled to participate in this community project,” library director Lisa Jacobs said today, as active duty military members joined veterans, army recruits, community members and town officials to help load the donated goods into the vans.

“This is the first wave of our food donations,” Jacobs said, pointing at the small mountain of boxes containing everything from canned goods to pasta products, beans and dry milk, all donated since this year’s project kick-off on Nov. 1. “This is just nine days worth of donations. I can only imagine what 30 days will bring.”

“There is no greater joy than to give to others,” Will Young of Suffolk County United Veterans said.

“Veterans need our help. They have many needs that are not being met by the government and wouldn’t be met without community support,” Young said. “What I do would not be possible without the community.”

About 26 percent of the homeless in the U.S. are veterans, according to the U.S. Veterans Administration, which estimates the number of homeless veterans at 500,000.

“A large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse, compounded by a lack of family and social support networks,” according to a VA fact sheet. “A top priority for at-risk veterans is secure, safe, clean housing that offers a supportive environment which is free of drugs and alcohol.”

That’s where organizations like Suffolk County United Veterans come in. The nonprofit organization, whose office is on Roanoke Avenue, maintains a home in Yaphank to provide emergency shelter for veterans in need. The group also provides transitional and permanent housing, and services to help veterans overcome some of the unique problems they face.

“That this can exist in our nation is just ridiculous,” Stokes said of the hundreds of thousands of vets living in poverty or homelessness. “These people gave everything for our country. We all need to do everything we can to give back to them.”

Stokes got the idea last year to dedicate the first week of the annual November food drive to honor veterans when she heard about the homeless vets shelter last year. It came to her attention because of a 24-hour endurance run on the Peconic Riverfront by a Flanders man to raise money for Suffolk County United Veterans.

Chris Cuddihy ran 81 miles over 24 hours in a loop along the riverfront and on Main Street last Veterans Day. Though he did the run virtually alone in 2010, this year Cuddihy will be joined by dozens of runners in the endurance event, according to the riverfront24.com website. It starts at 3 p.m. Thursday.

“They’ve given it all,” Cuddihy, a marathon runner, told RiverheadLocal last year. “I’ve given nothing.” The run was his way of thanking vets and giving back, he said.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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