2024: A Year in Review

December 23, 2024

2024: Year in Review

It’s safe to say that 2024 has been a very challenging year for our neighbors; we know the need is greater than what Delawareans experienced during the pandemic. Here at Food Bank of Delaware, we are humbled and honored to be able to provide services more effectively and efficiently. As we start 2025, we continue to strive toward addressing neighbors’ needs, knowing we are better equipped to handle product, distribution, and workforce training. As we like to say “Food for today and food for tomorrow.”

JANUARY

On Jan. 15 – Martin Luther King Day – we officially cut the ribbon on our new 70,000 square foot facility at 102 Delaware Veterans Blvd. in Milford, less than a mile from the 60,000 square foot facility we’d outgrown.

The culmination of a nearly 3-year construction project also created a new local landmark offering allows us to expand services and programs that serve our neighbors in Kent and Sussex counties.

FEBRUARY

Our Newark culinary students showcased their hospitality skills by hosting their annual Valentine’s Dinner at the Newark facility. Guests were treated to a delicious five-course menu. The students were professional, polished and eager to serve our guests!

MARCH

The Food Bank of Delaware received the Delaware State Education Association’s (DSEA) 2024 Community Partner Award during the organization’s annual Representative Assembly on Saturday, March 23 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington.

The Food Bank was nominated by Gloria Ho, a school social worker at Milton Elementary School in the Cape Henlopen School District. Ho praised the Food Bank’s commitment to eliminating childhood hunger, specifically addressing the Backpack Program.

The Community Partner Award is presented annually as established by the DSEA Executive Board to recognize local businesses, organizations, or individuals that support public education and the work of DSEA, according to the DSEA’s web site.

APRIL

Mobile pantries deliver food and hope to food deserts statewide. Rain – sometimes pouring rain – did not deter the families who came out to a mobile pantry at the North Georgetown Elementary School where about 162 families received fresh fruit, quality protein, milk, and kitchen staples in the drive-through pantry in which school staff and a few volunteers loaded vehicles. Principal Sarah Green explained that school leaders reached out to the Food Bank of Delaware to expand support for students. Out of the 750 students here in grades kindergarten through 5, about 75 percent receive multilingual services.

“As students and their families transition, they may need food, clothing and medical assistance. We believe that actions speak louder than words. We support the whole student, including social, emotional and functional needs. We take this very seriously,” Green said.

MAY

Delaware letter carriers helped to make the annual Stamp Out Hunger postal food drive a success. Thanks to the support of letter carriers, postal customers and volunteers, we brought in more than 161,000 pounds to the Food Bank of Delaware to help stock food pantries up and down the state. In addition to the Stamp Out Hunger drive, we also hosted two plant sales in Newark and Milford to benefit the Food Bank of Delaware agricultural program.

JUNE

The Food Bank of Delaware’s Nutrition team partnered with University of Delaware graduate Nutrition Program & Planning graduate students in an ongoing project to help our neighbors living with food insecurity have access to food that aligns with cultural and religious preferences.

The Cultural Foods Project started with training volunteers who collected data from neighbors visiting Food Bank community partner agencies statewide. Neighbor surveys were translated from English into Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Russian and Bengali. Neighbors provided a total of just over 800 survey responses and students analyzed 797 of them.

JULY

July is Disability Pride Month. We honor the experiences and contributions of people with disabilities all year long, but in July we took the time to spotlight our STEP associates as well as our Kitchen School staff and students. The Kitchen School offers a free 12-week workforce training program preparing adults with a diagnosed disability for employment in the food-service industry.

We also love July because it’s time for the Delaware State Fair and opportunity to partner with Food Lion to collect food donations that benefit our neighbors.

Thanks to a Food Lion-sponsored promotion, on Monday during the Fair, visitors can earn free Fair admission in exchange for a donation of five cans of Food Lion food. It’s a win-win because our staff always enjoys helping out Food Lion staff collect the donations at the Fair entrance.

AUGUST

Medical residents from ChristianaCare’s Family Residency spent time as boots-on-the-ground students at Food Bank of Delaware’s 5-acre Farm in Newark. They worked side-by-side with our staff and volunteers as plants were tended, and produce was harvested, cleaned, then packaged for neighbors who visit our Healthy Pantry Center.

SEPTEMBER

We like to see our community partnerships grow in order to better assist our neighbors. Beebe’s Food Prescription Program, for example, provides neighbors with health-care professionals to distribute food boxes we’ve provided. Each box of healthy food includes proteins, fresh vegetables and fruit. Participants from Millsboro and Georgetown in 24-week initiative agree to attend 12 weeks of educational sessions offered to help them understand how to better self-manage their health conditions, learn about nutritional needs, and develop skills to prepare foods in healthful ways.

OCTOBER

October is always a busy month for special events. We started the month with our annual golf tournament to help raise money for the Backpack Program, and ended the month with our Forks on the Farm dinner on the Newark farm.

NOVEMBER

We are so thankful for our generous supporters – personal and corporate donations of time, talent, and funds that help us deliver food and workforce development programs to neighbors in need. Thanks to Energize Delaware for their donation of four electric cars that staff will use to promote our programs. This month, we also received donations from food drives, 5K races, the annual Turkey Round-Up, and more.

We served more than 6,000 neighbors at three mass distributions, one in each county.

DECEMBER

We celebrate success, perseverance, learning, and positive outcomes, and this month when we witnessed our dedicated students graduate from The Kitchen School programs in Milford and Newark early in the month.

As we moved toward our holiday break, Culinary School and L.O.G.I.C. graduates were honored with applause and cheers as they received graduation certificates as well as documentation of professional certifications that launch them into new careers.