By Brianne Ledda and Claudia Motley
Stony Brook University’s food pantry is making weekly deliveries to campus residents who don’t have reliable access to food, according to an email sent to campus residents.
The pantry has already sent student residents two emails with online forms so far, on April 1 and March 23. More than 100 students have filled one out since the program was launched, according to Steven Adelson, co-director at the Center for Civic Justice.
“We transitioned to an online request and delivery service in order to maintain social distancing because the food pantry is in a smaller space, so we wanted to make sure there’s not a significant number of students in the space at any given time,” Adelson said.
He expects the delivery service to continue on a weekly basis for as long as inventory allows.
“Because the food pantry isn’t physically open at the moment, we haven’t put out any requests for donations but we are exploring ways in which community members can support the food pantry in these difficult times,” he added.
The pantry plans to deliver food ordered this week to residence halls on Friday. Residents should expect to receive another email with more information before the food is delivered.
The form will be offered in the future on the food pantry’s website; it will go live on Tuesdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., according to the pantry’s most recent email. To maintain social distancing, requests are completed via building delivery.
The announcement is only one of several changes the university has made to its dining program after most students moved off-campus.
Students still living in dormitories are also allowed three take-out meals per day from East or West dining for the rest of the semester, at no additional cost.
Both dining halls will be open for three meal periods operating under 2-3 hour shifts, opening at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast and closing after dinner at 7:00 p.m. The dining halls will close between meals.
Instead of using student ID cards, students are being asked to scan their GET Mobile App barcode to minimize cross-contamination.
Before students enter the dining halls, they will be provided with single-use gloves. Their take-out containers will be filled by staff members as they move through the dining area.
The Market at West Side, which sells grocery goods, will be open every day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Starbucks in Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library is open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Shop Red West is online only. FedEx and Amazon will continue operating at their regular hours for now, and the university is working on developing a delivery service for grocery and snack items through the GET App.
