Food Bank of Delaware
The Food Bank of Delaware, a member of Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network), is a Delaware-based, statewide nonprofit agency whose mission is a community free of hunger.[1]
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Overview
Founded in 1981 as the Food Conservers, Inc., the Food Bank of Delaware has provided food assistance for more than 30 years to Delawareans at risk of hunger. The organization has grown from an organization that served 50 agencies out of a basement in the Northeast State Social Service Center in Wilmington to a statewide hunger-relief organization with operations in both New Castle and Sussex Counties. Today the Food Bank of Delaware is the only facility in Delaware with the equipment, warehouse and staff to collect donations from all sectors of the food industry and safely and efficiently redistribute them to those who need it most. Annually, it distributes between 7 and 10 million pounds of food from all sectors of the food industry including fresh produce, meats, beverages and snacks.
Today, through a network of more than 350 member agencies and feeding programs, the Food Bank of Delaware distributes food to approximately 90,000 people in Delaware and parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Approximately 16,400 different people per week receive food assistance through the Food Bank's network of member agencies. Agencies include food closets, churches, schools, childcare centers, senior centers, state agencies, shelters, community centers and Summer Food Service Program and Child and Adult Care Feeding Program sites.
Logistics
The Food Bank of Delaware acquires donated food from local retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, food drives and growers as well as from national food donors as a member of Feeding America. During fiscal year 2007-2008 it received 6,527,217 pounds of food from community food drives and the food industry. The organization also purchases food at a wholesale price from food distributors to compensate for needed items not received by donations.