PORT JEFFERSON — Fifty members from Mather Hospital’s leadership team recently took part in the hospital’s second annual day of service to the community, volunteering with Coastal Steward Long Island (CSLI) at Cedar Beach in Mt. Sinai and at Bethel Hobbs Community Farm in Centereach.
“Our day of service is Mather’s way of giving back to our community while engaging in activities that make us better leaders, team members, and neighbors,” said Executive Director Kevn McGeachy, who was part of the team at Coastal Steward.
Volunteers with CSLI worked at the Mt. Sinai Harbor shellfish facility and cleaned up Cedar Beach. The Coastal Steward team cleaned 80,000 oysters and collected 120 pounds of garbage. CSLI is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to restoring and preserving Long Island’s coastline through education, raising public awareness, and community action. CSLI programs educate youth and local community groups in coastal environmental awareness through beach cleanups, shellfish population restoration, and citizen science.
Bethel Hobbs is an 11-acre farm that grows produce that will be shared with local food pantries and soup kitchens. The Bethel Hobbs team from Mather harvested enough kale, collards, and onions to feed 100 families. The farm was the original homestead of James Hobbs and later taken over by his son Alfred Hobbs. When Alfred Hobbs passed away in 1996, he left the farm property to the Bethel AME Church in Setauket, where he was a member. Friends of Hobbs Farm was formed in 2007. And in 2009, Hobbs Farm applied for and received its own independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. To this day, the cooperative gardening project 75,000 to 100,000 lbs. of fresh, organically grown produce to several local food pantries and soup kitchens.
Last year’s day of service was at a Habitat for Humanity home build in Mastic Beach and at Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck, a camp for individuals with disabilities, in Center Moriches.
About Mather Hospital
Mather Hospital is an accredited 248-bed, non-profit community teaching hospital dedicated to providing a wide spectrum of high-quality health care services to Suffolk County residents, showing compassion, respect and treating each patient in the manner we would wish for our loved ones. Mather earned the highest five-star rating for 2024 from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for outcomes, patient experience and process and has the prestigious Magnet® recognition three times from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice. The hospital
was rated high performing by U.S. News & World Report 2024-2025 Best Hospitals rankings in gastroenterology & GI surgery; geriatrics; neurology & neurosurgery; orthopedics; pulmonology & lung surgery; COPD; heart failure; hip fracture; kidney failure; leukemia, lymphoma & myeloma; and pneumonia. Mather also was named one of America’s 250 best hospitals for 2023 and 2024 by Healthgrades and received the Healthgrades 2024 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ for the fourth consecutive year, as well as its 20th top A grade in the spring 2024 ratings for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group. Our Graduate Medical Education program prepares physicians for future careers through Internal Medicine, Transitional Year, Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional Radiology, and Psychiatry residency programs and gastroenterology and hematology/oncology fellowships. For information about Mather Hospital, visit matherhospital.org or follow us @MatherHospital on Facebook.
About Northwell Health
Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, about 900 outpatient facilities and more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 87,000 employees – 18,900 nurses and 4,900 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We’re training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn.