Claire Sleber owner of Syosset's Curves for Women, recently held a food drive in her store to benefit Island Harvest.

Sleber waived the registration fee at the fitness store in lieu of customers donating a bag of groceries. Elliott Sylvan, Island Harvest volunteer, had to make three trips to the store to pick up the 1,200 pounds of food that Sleber and Curves collected. The food donated by Curves went to St. Mary's Children and Family Services in Syosset. "It was fantastic," said Sylvan, a resident of Syosset. "It was unbelievable."

Island Harvest is a food rescue program where volunteers go to restaurants, caterers, pizza places, and bageleries and ask for food that has not been served - food that would have been thrown away. Island Harvest provides all of the supplies and volunteers pack food and deliver it to soup kitchens, group homes and any agency that feeds people within one hour of pick-up time. According to Sylvan, there are about 330,000 people in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that are fed by this.

"We collected much more food than I expected and we exceeded my expectations," said Sleber. "People were more than generous and even my current customers were bringing in food just to donate it. Island Harvest does great work and anything I can do to help them, I will."

Sylvan has been volunteering for Island Harvest for approximately seven years. Island Harvest is responsible for the letter carrier food drive and many other food drives on Long Island. The organization is just over 10 years old and last year alone they handled over four million pounds of food.

"It is not too often that a small retail establishment like Curves for Women collects so much food," said Sylvan, who was honored by Island Harvest last year as being the volunteer of the year. "It was great what they did. Claire is a lovely lady and it was a tremendous idea. It was very unique. Most of the food comes from restaurants and this was very unique."

Curves for Women, which is located at 35 Ira Road in Syosset, offers a 30-minute fitness and weight loss program that is designed for women and they commit their methods, systems, energies and motivation to helping people to help themselves in their quest for a better quality of life.