The outside of Kelly Quad in West Campus. Students living on campus still have access to the food pantry, which has adjusted to social distancing. SHAH ALI HAIDER SHANTO/THE STATESMAN

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Avatar

Brianne Ledda is a senior journalism major minoring in history and environmental studies. She started writing for the Statesman's News Section in her first few weeks at Stony Brook University, and was promoted to Editor-in-Chief at the end of the Spring 2020 semester. You can contact Brianne via email at [email protected].

Tagged:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.