Monica Santos Honored as Social Services Leader
Photo caption: Monica Santos at S:US community fridge launches and food drive.
Congratulations to S:US Chief Program Officer Monica Santos for being recognized as a Social Services Leader, someone who makes our communities healthier and happier, one New Yorker at a time.
Monica Santos leads a team of committed human services leaders managing developmental disabilities services, behavioral health housing, and community food security, ensuring quality housing, clinical, and support services for New Yorkers in need.
Monica Santos was interviewed by Hilary Danailova:
At Services for the UnderServed, a New York City nonprofit, Monica Santos combines her passions for agriculture, social work and disability advocacy.
As a student at New York City’s only agriculture-centered high school, Santos fell in love with farming’s social-justice potential – an ethos she furthered in the Peace Corps, teaching agriculture in Botswana. Those experiences lay the groundwork for her urban farming and food-security initiatives with S:US, where she launched three community fridges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Growing food is healing. It feeds the body and the soul,” Santos says. “And it’s a job skill.” She stocks the fridges – like food pantries, but for perishables – with produce from New York state farms. Clients with disabilities help pack and distribute food to neighbors, including those in her nonprofit’s supportive housing – which is also in her portfolio – “so it ties in all the different pieces of what we do.”
The mission of S:US spans homelessness, poverty and disabilities. Its clients include domestic violence survivors, military veterans, people in recovery and those struggling with behavioral and mental-health challenges. Santos is well-equipped for these challenges, having previously spent a dozen years with AHRC New York City, where she spearheaded efforts to deinstitutionalize and integrate developmentally disabled clients.
Now she’s helping such clients integrate further through the community fridges, a concept she has promoted to organizations outside New York. “We all have the ability to make the world a better place,” she says, “and here at S:US, I get to do that every day.”
The S:US Board, staff, and our community join in congratulating Monica on this well-deserved honor!