Long Island’s largest soup kitchen now helping hungry pets too

They want to help those in a ruff patch.

Long Island’s largest soup kitchen is offering canned pet food and aiming to eventually serve meals to cats and dogs along with his hot food service, officials said Monday.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced the initiative between Hempstead’s Mary Brennan INN and the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at a press conference — saying 100 families have already picked up non-perishable pet food and supplies since November.

“We’ve done a lot of things with respect to food insecurity, and many people who have pets are also struggling to feed their pets,” Blakeman told reporters. “This time of year is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year.”

County Comptroller Elaine Phillips said “food insecurity is real” and that pets are “feeling the same thing.”

The offering of pet food at a soup kitchen is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the county launched for the holidays and there doesn’t seem to be any comparable programs in Suffolk County, officials said.

Officials are hoping to extend the program beyond the holidays.

“We were so thrilled to be contacted by the Nassau County SPCA to give us the opportunity to provide free pet food to the guests that we already serve who are experiencing food insecurity,” Dana Lopez, a spokesperson for the Mary Brennan INN, said.

In Nassau County, nearly 78,000 people are suffering from food insecurity, according to data from Feeding America. In neighboring Suffolk County, that figure jumps to 97,600 — combining for a total of over 175,000 people.

Last month, Blakeman declared a state of emergency to combat food insecurity during the federal government shutdown as SNAP funding remained up in the air — providing $50,000 per week to Island Harvest and Long Island Cares, the county’s largest hunger relief organizations, until federal assistance was fully restored.