Food Bank of Delaware

Thank you to the Society of St. Andrew for purchasing a load of watermelons on our behalf from Marvel Farms! We cannot wait to get them out into our community! 🍉💚

Miles, a graduate of our Kitchen School training program, is thriving in his new career at Winterthur! Miles loves working in the kitchen; last week his co-workers celebrated his 27th birthday! Happy birthday, Miles! 🎈🎂

Darius, one of our recent Kitchen School graduates, smiles when asked about his job at My Sister’s Fault, a Milford bakery and restaurant. His primary duties in the last three months include stocking inventory and kitchen supplies, and recycling, but he says he enjoys the opportunity to cook chicken and pork. Angie Robles, who owns the restaurant with her sister Rous, says having Darius as part of the 20-member team has been a great fit. “We love giving back to the community, but offering training and employment is more impactful,” she said, noting that she plans to hire another Kitchen School graduate within the next month. Visit https://lnkd.in/ghrjw2px to learn more about this 12-week training program designed for adults with disabilities.

Thank you to the University of Delaware’s Community Standards and Conflict Resolution team for volunteering on the Newark farm to help clear weeds around our newly-planted asparagus bed! Next spring, this asparagus will be distributed to our neighbors at no cost through the Healthy Pantry Center!

Thanks to the Delaware Farm Bureau Foundation and participants in the 2024 Milk Run 5K! The event, held in May at Ramsey's Farm, netted nearly $5,000 for our Backpack Program. Backpacks are weekend meals for children living with food insecurity; in Delaware, that’s 1 in 5 children. This donation will fund weekend backpack meal kits for 16 children for one year. 🎒💚

What a great day! This morning we celebrated the accomplishments of 17 students who successfully completed our culinary and warehousing logistics training programs! The graduates served as a reminder that it’s never too late to pursue one’s passion. The ceremony marked not only their achievements, but was also a celebration of second chances and finding one’s way! Congratulations!! Warehousing/Logistics (L.O.G.I.C.): ⭐Harold Bissoon ⭐Donte Brown ⭐Chetor Carter ⭐James Freeland ⭐Vonnie Lacey ⭐Derek Lord ⭐Dreama O’Neal ⭐Elijah Rayfield ⭐Anthony Schmidt ⭐Takeil Thomas   Culinary ⭐ Damonae Backus ⭐Gregory Davis ⭐Chad Hart ⭐Ali Harrington ⭐Aniqua Jolly ⭐Ida Luke ⭐Cameron Saunders

The Farm-to-Table concept connects chefs directly with growers, taking transportation and storage, out of the equation. At our new Milford facility, we call this Garden-to-Table. Last week, Milford’s Garden yielded 10 pounds of cucumbers. Caroline, our Garden Manager, delivered the harvest to Chef Tish. She found a great recipe, prepared a brine for bread-and-butter pickles, then sliced the cucumbers and onions. They will process in our refrigerator before packaging. Once these pickles are ready, our neighbors will enjoy them through distribution in our Healthy Pantry Center or sold in our on-site Café’. Bon Appetit!

Thank you Bank of America for presenting us a $75,000 donation to support our Mobile Pantry and Backpack Programs! We are grateful for this incredible support; it will help so many families in our community! In addition to presenting the donation, they also spent the afternoon packing meal kits for the Backpack Program 🧡💙🚚🎒

Thank you our friends at Wayman Fire Protection, Inc. for donating an assortment of cereal, granola bars and breakfast items! The team was thrilled to pick up 13 pallets last week, and we cannot wait to get these items out to our community members! Breakfast items are always high in demand!

We said farewell to our amazing Bank of America student leaders on Friday! For the past 8 weeks, they have learned the ins and outs of the Food Bank, assisted multiple departments and developed their professional skills. They have been so helpful to our team and we are grateful for their contributions to our organization! Best of luck to Raye-Lee, Haasini, Rujula, Ashwika and Danielle! Our future is bright with young people like these 5! We will miss you!