Schools of Social Welfare, Dental Medicine Combat Food Insecurity

Last week, students in Stony Brook University's School of Social Welfare (SSW) and School of Dental Medicine (SDM) held a successful food distribution event to help combat food insecurity.

Food insecurity is a theme that both schools have seen repeatedly, and it has profound impacts on the patients served in the Dental School. This year, SSW has three social work students interning at SDM working interprofessionally throughout the various dental clinics to provide services addressing social determinants of health.

Clinical Assistant Professor Jeanette Lukas oversees and supervises these student placements, and Associate Professor Kathleen Monahan oversees the Partnerships for Collaborative Education (PACE) program, a HRSA sponsored interprofessional wellness clinic housed in the School of Dental Medicine.

The students placed in the Dental School - Jazmine Molina, Heather Bromberg and Onyekachi Duru - organized this event. They worked with Phi Alpha, the Undergraduate Social Welfare Alliance (USWA) and Clinical Lecturer Haylee Hebenstreit to collect the food and set up the food distribution.

BSW students Tyer Jehle, Leslie Mejia, Cecelia Yat, Emily Hocker and Percy Halpern staffed the event and helped many people access food. They treated each person with dignity and respect and people were able to load up bags and boxes with needed items.

The event was a huge success in providing for human rights and allowing SBU students to practice using their social work values!