DuPont Crop Protection goes apple picking for hungry Delawareans
October 20, 2015
Last Wednesday, I met a group of enthusiastic DuPonters at Milburn Orchards in Elkton, MD. The outing, organized by Shawn Teaney, a member of DuPont’s Crop Protection team, provided a team-building opportunity for the Crop Protection’s leadership team.
When Shawn emailed me a month ago about DuPont’s intention to go to Milburn Orchards for an afternoon of apple picking to benefit the Food Bank of Delaware, I loved the idea! Who doesn’t love apple picking in the fall, especially when the apples are for families served by our network of partners!
“I actually drive by Milburn’s every day on my way to work at DuPont’s Stine-Haskell Research Center in Newark, and it seemed a natural fit for Crop Protection Leadership for several reasons; DuPont and the Crop Protection business has long had an association with the Food Bank of Delaware – our previous R&D Director Julia Wheeler was a member of your Board for a time – and we do many team volunteer events at your food distribution center during our United Way campaign and throughout the year,” explained Shawn.
“We are also in the business of helping farmers produce healthy, high-quality fruits and vegetables by discovering and developing new Crop Protection technology – so a Leadership Team-building event focused on bringing healthy food like fresh apples to Food Bank clients just seemed a great and natural extension of what we are all focused on each and every day!”
Last week the East Coast was inundated with rain storms plus forecasters called for a possible hit from Hurricane Joaquin. Thankfully, the Dupont team was able to get their apple-picking activity in! The team of 15, many with an agricultural background, greeted this outing with enthusiasm!
In total, the group collected 167 pounds of fresh apples! Milburn Orchards also generously sold the apples to the team at cost!
“It was a real pleasure to be able to collect all those big, beautiful apples for the Food Bank,” said Shawn. “I know they will be delicious for your clients, because we all had a chance to eat some straight from the tree!”
Do you have a creative way to help Delawareans in need? We’d love to hear about it! Contact us by emailing foodbank@fbd.org.
By Kim Turner, Communications Director
