For most people, the concept of a food bank conjures up thoughts of something akin to a soup kitchen, with people lining up in a large room at a church or in the parking lot waiting to get a week’s worth of supplies.
Well, Food Bank of Delaware is here to dispel that notion. They have a wide array of programming that goes beyond providing citizens with much-needed nourishment across Delaware, where one in eight people were classified as food insecure in 2022. They’re still in the food-distribution business too, but even the ways they do that are surprising and innovative.
“If you need food, you can come get it at our Healthy Pantry or order it on Amazon and we’ll deliver it to you,” says Tim Hunter, the agency’s executive chef in its Milford location. “But we provide many more services than that. We have a nutritional team, a ‘Stand By Me’ team, and we even do financial coaching. Just come in and tell us what your needs are and we’ll see if we can work with you. And if we can’t, we’ll try to refer you to an agency that can.”
Here’s a rundown of exciting happenings at Food Bank of Delaware that might surprise you:
They have an executive chef.
Tim Hunter has been with the organization for more than 15 years. He oversees much of the programming at FBD’s Milford site (there’s also a large location in Newark.) Much of Hunter’s fulfillment comes from seeing students graduate from the organization’s Culinary School, Kitchen School and LOGIC School. “It’s a feeling that never gets old, just knowing that you helped somebody get from point A to point B, which is life-changing for them,” he says. “Knowing that it’s going to be life-changing and seeing the whole process as it happens is amazing.”
They have a brand-new facility in Milford.
The organization moved from its former location near Airport Road to its new one on Delaware Veterans Boulevard in January. It’s significantly larger and includes its food distribution facilities, a farm/garden, a café and a Healthy Pantry that looks like a grocery store. “The new site has exceeded our expectations in many ways,” Hunter said. “We’ve doubled the size of our buildings, so we’ve been able to distribute significantly more food. Sales at the new café have been great. The community has embraced it, and we have some weekly and even daily customers. And we have a host of volunteers who help out on a regular basis as well.”
“I love what I do. That’s why I’ve been here for more than 15 years. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
– Tim Hunter, Executive Chef
They have a full café that’s open to the public.
The Milford Café is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Friday. The menu includes daily specials, such as shrimp linguine with alfredo sauce for $8, made-to-order sandwiches for $7, and salads for $7. Business has been good and includes groups of regulars who dine weekly – or every day. The café provides the students at the Culinary School with vital actual experience in preparing food, as well as an opportunity to develop essential customer service skills.
They have a full Culinary School.
The 14-week program is mostly for adults, including people who have been incarcerated. The curriculum includes basic and high-end kitchen skills, ServSafe training, life skills and culminates with a two-week paid work experience. A total of nearly 40 people graduated from the Milford and Newark locations from July 2023 to June 2024. Hunter says he is still in contact with one of his first graduates from more than a decade ago, who had been in trouble before he entered the program. “He said he needed a job or he’d go down the same road,” Hunter said. “We gave him a job at the food bank, he worked with us for a little while, and now he’s an executive chef who runs the kitchen of a restaurant in Wilmington and does very well for himself.”
They have a Kitchen School for people with intellectual disabilities.
The classes for this free 12-week program are always packed. The first eight weeks are spent in the kitchens in Milford or Newark, followed by a four-week transition to permanent employment. Thirty-eight students graduated last fiscal year. “The parents of one young man in this program thought he was going to get a job retrieving shopping carts at a grocery store,” Hunter said. “After graduating about eight years ago, he got a job at a restaurant and today he makes all their pasta and fresh bread every day. He moved out on his own, and now lives independently and even bought himself a car.” There is also a summer Culinary Exploration Program for those between 16 and 24 years old who are intellectually challenged. There have been 18 graduates statewide in the last year.
They have a Logistics, Operations, General Warehousing and Inventory Control (LOGIC) Program.
This free 14-week course, held in the warehouses and adjacent classrooms in the Milford and Newark facilities, prepares students for careers in the warehousing and logistics industry. Students learn how to operate forklifts and other warehouse machinery and can get OSHA and three other types of professional certifications. The program had 28 graduates last year.
They have a new 3.5-acre farm in Milford.
They’re required to call it a garden for governmental/legal reasons, but it’s really a farm. It’s a new addition that was added when the organization changed locations, and it includes three greenhouses with plans to add a fourth. “One of the first orders of business has been to work to improve the fertility and health of the soil in order to yield greater harvests in future years”, FBD’s Community Garden Manager Caroline May said. For example, there are cover crops on some of the plots to nourish the ground now in order to grow vegetables, which draw a lot of nutrients from the ground. The harvests to date have gone to the pantry and cafe, as well as to the Culinary School to be used in classes. Perennial crops of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and asparagus have been planted, as have annuals that include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, turnips, sweet peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, okra and basil. “So many local farmers have acted as mentors and also allowed us to borrow tractors and other equipment,” said May, who holds two agricultural degrees from the University of Delaware. “We also have a lot of community volunteers that we really rely on. It’s been very fulfilling to work with them.”
They have multiple ways of distributing food.
FBD still delivers food at little or no cost to 198 agencies it partners with, including food closets, shelters, meal programs and others. More than 6.2 million pounds of food, which equates to nearly 7.5 million meals, were delivered this way in the last year. There is also a Mobile Pantry Truck that makes visits to neighborhoods to distribute meat, produce, dairy, bakery items and nonperishables. Nearly 50,000 people received food via this method during more than 500 visits last year.
The organization also has handed out thousands of meal bags to children through its backpack program and thousands of meal boxes to seniors. The meal box program is funded by the USDA and private donations from the Palmer Home Foundation. They occasionally go to churches and other partners to give out food at mobile locations, a fairly traditional method. But now people in need can order on Amazon and FBD will deliver it. More than 17,000 people ordered the food they needed from Amazon. Trucks picked up the packages from FBD’s warehouses in Newark and Milford and made the home deliveries.
“Everyone’s individual circumstances are different, and we try to meet each of them where they’re at,” says Hunter. “If people have a car, maybe they’d like to pick up what they need at our facilities. If they don’t, they can order online, or we’ll drop if off to a community location that’s walkable for them.” There’s a Healthy Pantry at the new Milford facility where people can come in and have a grocery store-style experience. The Milford location sees as many as 75 to 100 people a day at its pantry, which has food on shelves in aisles and sections for refrigerated and frozen foods. People use carts and are allowed a total of 40 pounds of protein, produce and dry goods during each of their trips, which are limited to one a month. “A lot of people prefer it this way because they feel it’s more dignified,” Hunter explained. “They drive here and it’s just like going to a grocery store.” There’s also a Healthy Pantry at the Newark site. At both centers last year, nearly 47,000 people opted to get nearly 3 million meals this way.
They have a Nutrition, Education and Community Outreach Team.
Education is provided on the benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Woman, Infants and Children (SNAP/WIC). Classes are held in-person and virtually to instruct people on how to stretch their benefits, cook healthy meals, and be physically active. More than 300 WIC households were assisted last year. SNAP applications totaling more than $2.9 million in benefits were prepared for 840 people last year. The team also assists in the application processes for Purchase of Care, Medicaid, and long-term care programs. Stand By Me Financial Coaching partners with the FBD team and helped 291 participants last year, which resulted in a total debt reduction of more than $342,000 and a total increase in savings of more than $133,000.
You can visit. And you can help.
Food Bank of Delaware is having a fundraiser called The Farmer and the Chef in Milford from 5:30 p.m.to 8 p.m. on Sept. 19. This ticketed event pairs local chefs with farmers to prepare tasting samples using locally grown produce. It will take place on a patio next to the greenhouses on the facility’s farm plots. October Oak Music will be performing, and drinks will be served. FBD Milford is located at 102 Delaware Veterans Boulevard. For more information about this event, visit www.fbd.org/farmer.
Hunter attests that Food Bank Delaware is a truly gratifying place to work. “People always ask me why I don’t wear a chef’s coat. It’s because none of this has ever been about me,” he says. “It’s always about the students and the people we serve. When people stop by and say they want to help, my first question is to ask how they can help the students. I love what I do. That’s why I’ve been here for more than 15 years. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
