Food Bank of Delaware Helps Feed More Community Members in Need Thanks to $23,500 Grant from BJ’s Charitable Foundation
October 20, 2015
Ed Maynard (right) of Cedars Church of Christ poses with a BJ’s Wholesale Club employee at the Newark store. Cedars picks up from BJ’s stores on a weekly basis and will benefit from BJ’s generous donation.
The Food Bank of Delaware has been awarded a $23,500 grant from BJ’s Charitable Foundation to support agency capacity building and provide more meals for the more than 122,000 food insecure Delawareans.
After helping to expand capacity in 2014 for more than 400 feeding pantries and programs that resulted in over 10 million more pounds of food being donated, BJ’s Charitable Foundation will invest additional funding this year to further prevent a bottleneck in the supply chain for food distribution to Americans facing hunger.
This will be the second agency capacity building grant awarded to the Food Bank of Delaware, which works with local agencies (food pantries, shelters and meal programs) that help distribute groceries and meals to residents who struggle with hunger.
Those same local hunger agencies, however, are often limited by a lack of equipment to move donations and provide safe storage for perishable items. Many agencies also encounter limited staff availability and training to support more high-functioning operations. The BJ’s Charitable Foundation grant will help those local agencies safely pick up more donated product from local supporters and distribute more perishable foods to community members in need – a crucial component in the fight to solve hunger.
“We collaborate with our partner agencies to get food to our neighbors in need on a daily basis; they’re often the final stage within our network to reach individuals who struggle with hunger,” said Food Bank of Delaware President and CEO. “With this grant from BJ’s Charitable Foundation, we are able to continue to address what we can do to help enable these organizations to be more efficient and effective, and in turn help more people facing hunger.”
BJ’s Wholesale Clubs has supported the Feeding America nationwide network of food banks since 2011. Each of their 208 clubs has contributed perishable food totaling nearly 35 million pounds, which is the equivalent of 28 million meals.
“At BJ’s, we’re always looking for new ways to partner with food banks and local organizations to help solve hunger in our communities,” said Jeff Fireman, Assistant Vice President of Regional Operations at BJ’s Wholesale Club. “Through this grant, equipment from refrigerated vehicles to coolers as well as food safety training and other costs related to agency success will result in more nutritious food getting to the people who need it most.”
BJ’s Wholesale Club distributed grants to 20 additional Feeding America® food banks to enhance these organizations’ agency capacity building. Each agency capacity grant provided by BJ’s Charitable Foundation was supplied in September, in honor of Hunger Action MonthTM. Throughout Hunger Action Month, the Food Bank of Delaware and the Feeding America nation-wide network of food banks have rallied the country to engage in the fight to end hunger in America.
