COMMUNITY · WYANDANCH

For more than 40 years, the Mercy Soup Kitchen has done the same thing every day in Wyandanch: cooked, served and cleaned up after a meal for anyone who came through the door. On a typical day that is about 150 people.

On Sunday, October 18, that stopped.

A fire broke out at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, the soup kitchen’s home, abc7NY reported. Church leaders told the station it started near an exterior door and spread into the building, damaging the kitchen and the church offices. Firefighters from Deer Park, Wyandanch, North Babylon and West Babylon put it out, according to Newsday, and officials said no one was hurt.

The soup kitchen is closed for now, and nobody can yet say for how long.

“I couldn’t sleep at all last night. There’s just such a tremendous job ahead of us,” Vito Colletti, the soup kitchen’s president, told the station.

The pastor, David Anglada, said the loss is hard because so many families depend on it. “This ministry is significant. It provides food for many families here in Wyandanch, so we are heartbroken we can’t do what we do on a daily basis here,” he said.

There is a second, quieter problem. The electricity has been shut off while the damage is assessed, and volunteers are worried about the food that was stored inside.

The work has not stopped completely. While professionals inspect the building and work out what has to be repaired, the volunteers are handing out sandwiches. Colletti described the people behind the kitchen as the kind who wash pots for hours, who love to cook and love to serve. A man who once ate there and later volunteered told the station the neighborhood needs the place badly.

If you want to help: the church says it needs money, not food or clothing, because right now it cannot store donated food or clothing. The reports do not say how to give. As soon as the church or the soup kitchen publishes a way to donate, we will add it here.

There is no timeline yet for reopening.

Sources: abc7NY, “Wyandanch church fire shuts down soup kitchen serving 150 people a day,” October 19, 2026 · Newsday, “Fire in Wyandanch church forces closure of soup kitchen,” October 19, 2026