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Oklahoma is ranked 10th in the country for food insecurity. In fact, 1 in 4 Oklahoma children are food insecure. Financial strains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated food insecurity for children across the country and the USDA reports over 10% of households don’t have enough to eat. As families struggle to afford food and shelter, oral health often falls by the wayside, which can lead to missed school and extra time away from work, adding to the viscous cycle of poverty.
Partnering with community touch points where families access essential resources helps them get the oral health resources and information they need to prevent dental disease. That’s why America’s ToothFairy was happy to collaborate with the Delta Dental of Oklahoma Foundation (DDOF) in 2023 and 2024 to provide oral health kits and educational materials at food banks and community libraries across Oklahoma.
This initiative provided 50 food banks with enough resources to provide a total of
5,000 underserved children with oral health education–including the importance of a healthy diet and how that impacts their oral health–as well as oral care products and resources to help their families access oral health services.
In addition to that, non-dental professionals received access to a digital toolkit with educational activities, an instructional video, and information on finding a dental clinic, and training to help them educate families about oral health.
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The oral health resources provided to food banks were modeled after a successful project launched the year before at public libraries. With a vast population reach, libraries are a key resource for information, shelter and socialization for diverse groups, and are well-positioned partners for improving community oral health outcomes. Together with DDOF, in 2023 we equipped 30 Oklahoma libraries with educational materials to educate children and caregivers about oral health during story time and provided oral care products to establish hygiene closets at each location. Story times focused on oral health were conducted by library staff or local dental professionals to provide instruction on daily dental habits and prepare children for dental visits.
“The children loved the activity books that went along with the kit,” Jennifer Fuller of Eastern Oklahoma Library System in Muskogee, Oklahoma told us. ”Many enjoyed working together with their parents to color the healthy foods and crossing out foods that were not. …[The kit] was a wonderful way to talk about having healthy teeth!”
The libraries, which were located on reservations as well as in urban and rural areas, also received additional resources to distribute to their patrons during summer programs and other library events. Due to the significant number of indigenous children impacted by the project, each library received “Shelby Goes to the Dentist,” a book written by a dental hygienist from the Cherokee Nation, which honored their culture and provided representation during their story time presentations.
Each library was provided with 100 toothbrushes to stock their hygiene closet, 100 Oral Care Tips for the Whole Family brochures, 100 bookmarks with oral care tips, 100 activity booklets that included a brushing chart, virtual training opportunities for library partners, three children’s books to read during story time and opportunities for families to win a Scholastic gift card upon viewing a video about essential hygiene practices.
To get more details about sponsoring education kits like these for families in your community, visit our Smile Guardian Program page.
