David Jacobson and County Line Rock Mulcahy’s Against Hunger

It's not very often that people get to do what they love in support of a great cause. This past Thursday night, David Jacobson and country music ensemble County Line were able to do just that.

Over the last decade, Jacobson and his Hauppauge-based automotive resource company Groovecar have worked with , a Mineola-based hunger relief organization serving all of Long Island. As a lifelong musician, Jacobson felt he should do something more to utilize his business and his passion to contribute to a worthy foundation and saw Island Harvest as a natural fit.

Jacobson teamed up with County Line, a popular Long Island country band, and award-winning solo artist Paula Rose to host the inaugural Country Harvest Concert at  in Wantagh.

"We decided we wanted to do this concert and thought what better affiliation for a great cause than somebody we're already connected with," said Jacobson, who began planning the event early in the summer. "We hope to continue this at least once a year. We really believe in Island Harvest."

Island Harvest was established in 1992 when founder Linda Breitstone discovered the amount of food local convenience stores disposed of at the day's end. Appalled at how many goods were going to waste, Breitstone made it her mission to help fight hunger and food waste on Long Island, and almost 20 years later, Island Harvest stands as the largest hunger relief organization serving Nassau and Suffolk.

Randy Dresner, president of the Mineola-based organization, expressed how grateful Island Harvest is for Groovecar's generous contributions and dedication to making the first Country Harvest a success, adding that such fundraising is what allows the organization to continue it's relief mission.

"I know the work we do is important," said Dresner. "I know we're feeding more than 300,000 people right here on Long Island. It can't get more serious than that - it's a crisis proportion at this point. We're really proud to be apart of helping people who need it the most"

Island Harvest recently acquired a new 24,000 square-foot space in Hauppauge to better serve the needs of Long Island residents.

"We're in the middle of an expansion program," said Dresner. "We have our two warehouses and office space in Mineola, but our new Hauppauge warehouse will enable to move two million pounds more over what we are already moving across Long Island now."

Dresner told Patch that their new space will open a lot of new doors for their work, welcoming both new clients and new volunteers into their fight.

"There's about three million people in Nassau and Suffolk County and we're serving one in 10," she said. "We hope within a year to be moving 10 million pounds and growing beyond that."