Island Harvest Food Bank and PSEG Long Island announced a series of food drives to help feed people in need this summer.

"Summertime is such a tough time for people that are in need, and we know that there are so many people that have struggled through COVID," said Island Harvest President and CEO Randi Shubin Dresner.

Dresner said food donations typically drop off during the summer and the pandemic forced twice as many families as usual to ask for help. So her organization has partnered with PSEG Long Island to launch the "Power to Feed" campaign.

Various food drives will be hosted throughout the summer at Stop and Shops, King Kullens and Stew Leonard's across the Island to help as many people as possible.

The food bank will need food donations. Residents can also drop off any household items they might find at a grocery store.

"Diapers... anything that you know when you go in a supermarket you need but may be high priced would really be helpful for our neighbors in need," Dresner said.

The first food drive of the campaign was supposed to take place Friday at the Stop and Shop in Islandia, but it was postponed due to Tropical Storm Elsa.

"So today we donated $5,000 worth of gift cards to ensure while we cannot wait for people to come out to our store on the 16th and make that donation, we want them to get what they need now," said Stop and Shop's Stefanie Shuman.

The very first food donation came Thursday morning after a family saw News 12's coverage of the effort.

Island Harvest said it helped feed and provide other services to 600,000 families last year.

The food bank hopes to feed 21,000 families this summer.

To view more about upcoming food drives, visit PSEG’s website.