The food bank Harry Chapin founded is collecting for the holidays, and the drop-off window has nine days left. Long Island Cares is running its Holiday Food & Fund Drive now, with donated food accepted at 75 Davids Drive in Hauppauge through Friday, October 30, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The drive is the centerpiece of the organization's Gather & Give season, the stretch of the year when the Hauppauge food bank assembles the meals that reach Long Island households for Thanksgiving and the December holidays.

Four ways in

The campaign is set up so that a household, a workplace or a classroom can each find a lane.

The most direct is food. Long Island Cares posts a holiday shopping list of its most-requested items on the drive page, and donations from that list can be brought to the Davids Drive drop-off during the window. The organization asks that donated food be non-perishable.

The second is money. The organization puts the arithmetic plainly: a $25 donation helps provide the main dish on a holiday table. Online giving runs through the same drive page year-round, past the food drop-off deadline.

The third is time. Holiday meal-packing shifts are open to individuals and to corporate groups, with registration through the Long Island Cares volunteer page. Packing is the step between the warehouse and the table, and it is the part of the season that depends most on extra hands.

The fourth is hosting a drive of your own. Schools, offices, teams and congregations can register through the organization's food drive form, and Long Island Cares supplies the kit: collection boxes three feet tall and eighteen inches square that hold about 100 pounds of food each, promotional materials, and either pickup or drop-off when the boxes fill. Students collecting for service requirements earn one hour of community service credit for every 40 pounds of food gathered, and fully virtual drives run through the #GiveHealthy and YouGiveGoods platforms for groups that cannot stack boxes in a lobby.

The food bank Harry Chapin built

Long Island Cares was founded in 1980 by the singer and songwriter Harry Chapin, and the organization now operates as a regional food bank serving Long Island from its headquarters at 10 Davids Drive in Hauppauge, an address that carries the designation Harry Chapin Way. The holiday drop-off site at 75 Davids Drive sits just down the road.

The drive comes at the time of year when food banks do the largest share of their distribution, and the October 30 cutoff exists so that what comes in can be sorted and routed in time to land on Thanksgiving tables.

If you want to give

Food from the holiday list can be dropped at 75 Davids Drive, Hauppauge, weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through October 30. Meal donations, volunteer registration, the host-a-drive form and the full shopping list are at licares.org, and the organization answers questions at 631-582-FOOD.

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