Food Bank of Delaware receives $30,000 from Potter Trust

December 6, 2016

Thanks to a $30,000 grant from the Benjamin Potter Trust Fund, the Food Bank will provide weekend meals through the Backpack Program to at-risk children attending school at Banneker and South Dover Elementary schools.

The Backpack Program provides bags full of meals for the weekend and holidays when school is not in session.

This funding will provide 178 children with food for an entire school year.

Plastic bags are stocked with kid-friendly, nutritious food including shelf-stable milk and juice, meals such as macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs and beef stew, granola bars, apple sauce, cereal and more. They are distributed on Fridays or the last day before a holiday or vacation in a discreet manner at schools.

Food and informational flyers for the bags are packed by volunteers, and the Food Bank of Delaware delivers the them to participating sites weekly. Last year 160,800 bags were distributed through 133 statewide sites. On average 5,000 children participate each week.

“We are grateful for this support,” said Food Bank of Delaware President and CEO Patricia Beebe. “With one in five Delaware children living in poverty, it is critical that we get this much needed food out to our children.”

In total, the Benjamin Potter Trust Fund distributed $240,000 in grants to organizations that assist low-income Kent County residents. Grants are made annually from this fund of the Delaware Community Foundation, with the help of a grants committee convened by the CenDel Foundation.

Other grantees include (representatives from organizations pictured in photo above): Caring Hearts Helping Hands, Communities in Schools, Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, Delaware Guidance Services for Children and Youth, Inc., Milford Housing Development Corporation and the National Council on Agricultural Life and Research Fund.

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