Meeting People Where They Are Is Food for the Soul
Samantha Sassone, DNP knows that good nutrition is critical to physical and mental health and that, unfortunately, not everyone can afford or easily obtain the ingredients needed to make a nutrient-dense meal. She has witnessed this firsthand. An assistant professor in Le Moyne’s Department of Nursing, Sassone grew up in a rural part of Ontario County known as Manchester-Shortsville. Many of its residents struggle with food insecurity and access to nutrition education. That, in turn, can exacerbate chronic illness like hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Sassone recognizes that the people facing these challenges are not strangers or abstractions. They are her neighbors, and she has the capacity to help them. That is exactly what she has done.
With the support of civic leaders and her colleagues in the Purcell School of Professional Studies, Sassone recently hosted a health-and-wellness event for the community centered around what she calls “culinary medicine.” It featured blood pressure screenings, a cooking demonstration, and a lesson in how to read nutrition labels. The session was, in Sassone’s words, “small but impactful,” Participants had the opportunity to ask questions of Sassone and her colleagues, including about the medicines many of them were taking to manage their hypertension, and to share a meal with one another.
When the event was over, one attendee was moved to write a message to Sassone and her colleagues saying that she “better understood her disease process” and thanking them for their time and expertise.
Sassone is gratified by that feedback. In fact, she hopes to expand this program to other high-need communities in Central New York, so that they too can benefit from blood pressure screenings, cooking demonstrations and information sessions. She is already receiving calls from people who would like to participate. In the future, though, she would like to draw more students from Le Moyne’s nursing program into the fold and to invite them to take the lead with her and her colleagues in supporting roles. That would provide the students with the opportunity both to practice their clinical skills while living Le Moyne’s mission of service to others.
Through this project, I hope that our students will learn to listen to people, to understand them and to meet them where they are so that they can receive the care they need.”
Coming Together to Fill a Need
Prior to hosting the wellness event, Sassone, along with Kathy Leach-Hanley, assistant to the dean of the Purcell School of Professional Studies, and her grandmother, Jeri “G.G.” Gysel, sewed reusable grocery bags to be used by students in the Manchester-Shortsville Central School DIstrict. It is estimated that 10 percent of the school district’s children live below the poverty line. Many of them receive food to bring home with them, primarily to stave off hunger over the weekend.
Sassone was joined at the health-and-wellness events by several of her colleagues from the Purcell School of Professional Studies: Meega Wells, dean of the Purcell School of Professional Studies, Ph.D.; Marisa Davis, OTD, of the Department of Occupational Therapy; Jody Coppola, DNP, and Dorothy Haag, Ed,D., R.N., of the Department of Nursing; and Mary Springston, M.S., Ed., PAC, of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies. The event was supported by a grant from the Manchester-Shortsville Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club.
