Food bank aims for year-round donations
- Food Bank to start Stamp out Hunger campaign in May
- Between 7 million and 10 million pounds of food make their way through the Food Bank%27s Milford and Newark warehouses every year%2C bought at deeply discounted prices by organizations on the front lines of feeding the hungry.
MILFORD – The average cost of a whole broiler chicken now sits at a little more than a dollar a pound, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But Delaware food closets and soup kitchens know where they can get chicken, a food staple beloved by the needy people they serve, for only 19 cents a pound: the Delaware Food Bank.
In a grocery store, "you can't even buy hot dogs for that," said Diane Dolan, a retired teacher who helps the Milford Community Food Pantry keep its shelves stocked. "We could not afford to buy protein without the price we get this chicken at. We could not keep a food pantry going without it."
Between 7 million and 10 million pounds of food make their way through the Food Bank's Milford and Newark warehouses every year, bought at deeply discounted prices by organizations on the front lines of feeding the hungry.
Because donations to the Food Bank peak around Thanksgiving and Christmas, then fall off in the first part of the year, the people who manage the Food Bank's supplies are always on the lookout for ways to increase food stores.
"From the time that it starts to get cold, when the leaves start to change, people get in the mind-set of wanting to give back," said Chad Robinson, director of the Food Bank's Milford branch. "Right after the first of the year, everything just kind of falls off. On our side, we have to continue to think of creative ways to continue to bring in food donations."
The Food Bank saw the donation drop-off coming again this year, so it mounted a public campaign for donated food in January and February – the Share a Second Helping campaign – with a goal of collecting 100,000 pounds of food.
"We were concerned early on that we wouldn't make that 100,000 pounds goal," Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf said this month at an all-day conference on hunger issues.
But in the end, the campaign paid off, with 140,000 pounds brought in by the end of February, said Kim Turner, a Food Bank spokesman. In May, the Food Bank goes back to the well with its Stamp Out Hunger drive, which lets people donate food by leaving it for mail carriers to pick up.
Of every 10 pounds of food in the Food Bank's warehouses, about 4 pounds of it comes from drives – schools, offices and churches putting out barrels for people to drop in canned peaches, peanut butter jars or boxes of pasta.
The other 6 pounds comes from a much different, more predictable supply chain, through donations or purchases of food from grocers, nationwide retailers or food producers like Perdue Farms.
Perdue, in fact, is the top provider of supplies to the Food Bank, with 505,000 pounds of food – chicken, naturally – transferred between July 2012 and July 2013, the Food Bank said in an annual report.
At the Food Bank's Milford warehouse, an apartment-sized walk-in freezer stands ready to store what Perdue sends. A refrigerator room of the same size holds fruit, loaves of bread and grocery-store cakes.
"What's most difficult is the produce side of the house," Robinson said. His goal is to get all the perishable food distributed before it spoils. For that reason, the Food Bank doesn't charge for produce; the 477 groups that come for food can pick it up for free.
For other foods, the Food Bank keeps up-to-date menus of what it has in stock. Food closets and churches come in at regular times to pick up what they've ordered. That's what Dolan, from the Milford Community Food Pantry, was doing this week. "This is our backbone," she said of the Food Bank.
Some foods, though, are hard to keep in stock because demand for them is so high, Robinson said. He mentioned peanut butter and canned tuna; like chicken, those are cheap and easy-to-prepare proteins.
Even when Robinson sees his warehouse's shelves getting a little bare, "I know I never really need to worry," he said. "Delawareans are very kind people ... When we put out financial calls, when we put out food calls, people do respond and are generous."
Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.