Food Bank expands to meet growing needs in Delaware

• The Food Bank of Delaware is moving into a larger building, at the Pencader Corporate Center in Glasgow.
• It's about twice the size of its current building in Ogletown.

The Food Bank of Delaware's move to a much larger location will not only improve the group's ability to feed tens of thousands of hungry Delawareans, it will allow the organization to help more people not have to rely on its services.

At 80,000 square feet, the location in the Pencader Corporate Center off Del. 896 in Glasgow is nearly twice the size of the current Ogletown operation and increases the number of loading docks from three to 11 to more easily accommodate the nearly 30 trucks that arrive at the warehouse daily. Larger refrigerators also will increase capacity as the food bank accepts more food.

There also is a 9.5-acre retention pond the organization will use in its educational programs and nearly 5 acres of land that will be used to plant vegetable gardens. The Glasgow facility also will provide training for warehouse and agriculture jobs, and there will be an expansion of culinary and re-entry training programs.

"People have encouraged me to move for years because of our parking problems and because of our loading bay areas," said Patricia Beebe, president and chief executive officer of the Food Bank of Delaware. "I have resisted doing that because I really felt that I was more interested in moving when we had something to really offer the state of Delaware, other than providing more food."

She says the opportunities at the new facility, which is being retrofitted for a fall 2017 opening, will accomplish that goal.

The Food Bank paid $4.5 million for the property and is raising $6 million for the work that's needed. The other property is currently up for sale.

"It's really unfortunate in our society that people sort of see a food bank as something for a certain segment of the population and they don't see it as a solution to enable us all to move forward," Beebe said. "I think we know that we have an opportunity to do that here, and we really want to do that here."

The organization currently is based at 14 Garfield Way off Del. 72.

Food banks across the country have moved past providing only short-term supplies of food to the chronically hungry. There have been efforts to feed more children during nonschool hours and operate mobile pantries in neighborhoods that lack healthy food stores. And in the past five to 10 years, food banks across the country have been moving into larger facilities that allow them to take in and store more fresh produce.

"We've worked really hard to make more fresh produce available to the people we serve," said Ross Fraser, director of media relations at Feeding America, a nationwide network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs. Five years ago, food banks were providing about 500 million pounds of fresh produce. Food banks are now distributing about 1.2 billion pounds of fresh produce.

Feeding America also recently launched Collaborating for Clients, a multiyear initiative designed to address the root causes of food insecurity.

The organization seeks to connect people facing hunger to multisector partners that can help them address priority needs related to employment, health and housing and ultimately help them build a pathway to stability.

"Hunger is not an island onto itself," Ross said. "There's all these other co-factors having to do with housing, health, employment and finances."

While the number of food insecure Delawareans has slightly dropped from about 122,000 last year to approximately 117,900, there is still a need, according to Kim Turner, a Food Bank of Delaware's spokeswoman.

"Childhood hunger still remains a problem here in Delaware," Turner said, adding that 1 in 5 Delaware children live in poverty. "We have seen significant growth in our children’s backpack program. Through this program, we send bags full of food home with kids over the weekend and holidays when school is not in session."

During the 2016 fiscal calendar, the Food Bank of Delaware distributed 160,800 bags, up from about 154,800 bags the previous year and approximately 129,300 bags during the 2014 fiscal calendar.

STORY: New program writes prescriptions for produce, not pills

STORY: Food Bank to offer new training course in June

The organization also is distributing more food, including 7.1 million pounds this year. That's up a million pounds over the previous year.

The more organizations such as the Food Bank grow their services, the fewer people will be hungry, said Ray Fitzgerald, Delaware's Division of Social Services director. He said the larger space will allow the Food Bank to have more volunteers, allow for more food to be taken in and to train people to overcome their food insecurity issues.

"People don't realize how many kids go to bed, families go to bed hungry every night," Fitzgerald said. "Because we don't see it ... places like the Food Bank are definitely needed."

It "allows people to maintain dignity in their challenge while still getting the help that they need to keep moving forward."

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.

Events at new Food Bank facility 

On Thursday, the Food Bank of Delaware will conduct a "groundbreaking" ceremony at 11 a.m. to show off its new 80,000-square-foot facility at  222 Lake Drive in Glasgow.  A tour of the new headquarters will follow the ceremony. 

On Saturday, the organization will host its annual Blue Jean Ball at the new building. The event will provide the public an opportunity to see the warehouse before the food bank retrofits it with offices, a volunteer room, two culinary kitchens, two classrooms, a clean room and other services that will be used to educate people. Tickets for this event are $75 per person or $750 per table of 10 and may be purchased by calling (302) 444-8074 or by visiting fbdbluejeanball.org.