By GREGORY ZELLER //
An innovative effort to strengthen the regional workforce while addressing food insecurity has reached a notable plateau.
Melville-based Island Harvest Food Bank recently graduated the 10th cohort of its Workforce Skills Development Institute, an in-house training program designed to break the hunger cycle by equipping the underemployed and under-skilled to perform professionally and fend for themselves.
The program launched in January 2023 and celebrated its first graduating class two months later. The 10 members of the 10th cohort bring the total number of WSDI graduates – freshly trained to work in various logistics capacities – to 97, with Island Harvest noting an “average employment rate among graduates” of 74 percent.
Therein lies the secret sauce of the skills-development effort, according to Island Harvest Food Bank President and CEO Randi Shubin Dresner, borrowed directly from the give a man a fish/teach a man to fish playbook.
Randi Shubin Dresner: Long-term solutions.
“In tackling hunger, we must do more than provide food – we must provide pathways,” Dresner noted. “Food assistance is critical, but it is a short-term intervention in a long-term public-health crisis.
“Programs like our Workforce Skills Development Institute help break the systemic cycle of food insecurity by empowering people with the skills to secure stable employment and build a stronger future,” she added.
The WSDI is backed by several programmatic and financial partners. Candidates are recruited through private social-services agencies, the New York State Department of Labor, Technical Assistance Center of New York One‑Stop Career Centers across Nassau and Suffolk and a host of county offices, while financial support is provided by the Town of Hempstead, the Town of Oyster Bay, private corporations (Nestle Health Science, PSEG Long Island and others) and various regional banks.
Among them: North Carolina-based Bank of America, which has been “proud to partner with Island Harvest for nearly two decades,” according to President Marc Perez.
The partnership “[reflects] our shared interest in expanding opportunities for Long Islanders confronting barriers to stability and long-term success,” Perez said in a statement. “That common ground and the belief in Island Harvest’s leadership led Bank of America to become the founding partner of the Workforce Skills Development Institute, investing in career training initiatives that up-skill and re-skill individuals for in-demand careers and, ultimately, create their pathway to economic mobility.”
Marc Perez: Confronting barriers.
To clear those pathways, the WSDI provides a comprehensive curriculum that earns graduates six industry-recognized credentials, covering technical warehousing, inventory control and workplace soft skills – all told, a crash-course master-course in essential employability.
To further reduce barriers and promote participant success, the program offers stipends meant to cover transportation and childcare costs, along with weekly career-coaching seminars and post-graduation support. Island Harvest also works directly with regional employers to align the program with local job-market needs, further enhancing participants’ ability to find work after graduation.
With 10 cohorts graduated in just three years and more coming soon, the WSDI is an impressive blueprint for not only addressing the current food-insecurity crisis but breaking a cycle that might otherwise roll on through generations, according to Island Harvest Chief Workforce Institute Officer Maria Arianas.
“Our work stands at the crossroads of economic prosperity, social equity and community growth” Arianas added. “It is with this purpose that we approach the training and development of our students.”
