A healthy community needs food for thought, and Dollar General is helping MTSU provide it.

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation presented an $8,000 grant to Drs. Catherine Crooks and Stuart Bernstein May 7 at the Nashville Public Library.

MTSU psychology professors Catherine Crooks, and Stuart Bernstein, center left and right, accept an $8,000 check from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation at the Nashville Public Library May 7. The money will fund the creation of the Collaborative Learning and Leadership Institute at Mitchell-Neilson Elementary School. They’re joined by, from left, Denine Torr, Dollar General director of community initiatives; Barbara Springer, Dollar General treasurer; and Steve Brophy, Dollar General vice president of government relations. (Photo by Scott Schrecker/Dollar General)

The money will enable Crooks and Bernstein to bolster their ongoing efforts toward improving health literacy among Murfreesboro children.

“We are very grateful to Dollar General for their support of Drs. Crooks and Bernstein’s health literacy efforts and what this will mean to our partnership with Murfreesboro City Schools,” said Dr. Harold Whiteside, dean of the MTSU College of Behavioral and Health Sciences.

The funding will help fund the creation of the Collaborative Learning and Leadership Institute at Mitchell-Neilson Elementary School. There, Crooks and Bernstein, in collaboration with other faculty, students and community partners, will address educational and environmental issues that affect student and family success.

Crooks and Bernstein, both psychology faculty, strive to improve reading proficiency of children and adults struggling with basic literacy and education.

Their work also aims to help keep down community health care costs associated with lack of knowledge or understanding of medical information and instructions.

For more information, contact the MTSU College of Behavioral and Health Sciences at 615-898-2900 or Dollar General at 877-944-3477 or pr@dg.com.

— Gina K. Logue (Gina.Logue@mtsu.edu)