300 Volunteers “Clear the Aisles” at 222 Lake Drive to “Raise the Roof”

March 30, 2018

Before roof replacement work can begin at 222 Lake Drive next week, 300 volunteers helped sort and box 90-plus totes of nonperishable donations at the “Clear the Aisles to Raise the Roof” event yesterday. The food was stored at our future home due to space limitations at the current facility at 14 Garfield Way.

Throughout the afternoon, volunteers worked on assembly lines to inspect food donations and pack them by category. The atmosphere was festive with music from DJs Fresh and Cameron.

In total, 100,000 pounds of donations were sorted through within a three-hour time period. Food will be distributed to Delawareans in need through the Food Bank’s network of partners.

In addition to sorting through food donations in order to clear them out of the warehouse, the event was also held to increase awareness of the Creating a Bold Future Capital Campaign, a campaign to raise $10 million for the retrofit project.

Andrew Zeltt was honored after the packing event with the Volunteer of the Year award. Andrew has volunteered at the Food Bank since 1996.

“We can always count on him to bring a group of 10-25 people on the last Tuesday of every month,” said Food Bank of Delaware President and CEO Patricia Beebe. “Andrew is a leader in the volunteer room – he has truly done it all – sorted donations, packed donations, packed bags full of food for kids participating in our weekend backpack program, stocked the shelves of shoppers choice, packed boxes for seniors in need and the list goes on. He is truly an asset to our organization.”

The afternoon concluded with a special happy hour featuring local food truck businesses, KaPow and Lower Slower Cue. Complimentary beer and wine was donated by Iron Hill Brewery and Breakthru Beverage.

To learn more about the Creating a Bold Future capital campaign, please click here.