During the course of a year, the Manhasset Rotary Club, like the Manhasset Kiwanis Club and other similar organizations, is addressed by many speakers representing nonprofit organizations. They are of varying worth and varying appeal.

This week the club was addressed by Linda Breitstone of Island Harvest, an organization that feeds the hungry by recovering food that would otherwise go to waste. It is perhaps the most significant mission of mercy we have heard this year. Island Harvest's mission is to end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island.

More than 300,000 people on Long Island are seeking food assistance. Every day, perfectly good food is being thrown away that could feed these hungry people. The Island Harvest volunteers, and they now number 650, pick up this good, nutritious food from caterers, restaurants, country clubs, etc. and deliver it to nonprofit agencies that feed Long Island's needy. The food is delivered, following Health Department guidelines, to more than 325 Nassau and Suffolk community service agencies, including child care centers, Head Start programs, senior citizen programs, group homes for developmentally disabled, shelters of abused and neglected children and soup kitchens.

Volunteers are always needed to pick up and deliver food, find new food donors, raise funds and help in the office. A Department of Agriculture study estimates that 96 billion pounds of food go to waste each year. If the amount recovered, or gleaned, were raised by 1/3, it would be enough to feed roughly 450,000 a day for a year. In its literature, Island Harvest quotes Edmund Burke: "Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." To volunteer call Island Harvest at (516) 294-8528.