Perdue Foundation grant helps fund expansion of Food Bank of Delaware Milford branch

The Food Bank of Delaware has operated for more than three decades with the vision of a community free of hunger by providing nutritious foods to Delawareans in need and facilitating long-term solutions to the problems of hunger and poverty through community education and advocacy. Each year, more than 240,000 people depend on the agency’s network of hunger relief partners, and the demand is increasing at an alarming rate, especially in Kent and Sussex counties.

To help meet the growing needs, the Food Bank of Delaware plans to double the size of its 8,000- square-foot facility in Milford. The nonprofit organization has received a significant boost to help fund the $2.7 million expansion project through a $60,000 grant funded by the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation.

“We are incredibly grateful for partners like Perdue,” said Food Bank of Delaware President and CEO Patricia Beebe. “With more than one in four Delawareans depending on our food-assistance services and thousands of children in need of after-school and summer meals, the expansion of our facility in Milford is needed now more than ever. Once our building is complete, we will have nearly double the amount of space to operate our hunger-relief programs, and perhaps most importantly, we will have a venue to provide critical job training skills through our culinary school to residents of Kent and Sussex counties.”

Perdue Chairman Jim Perdue, in presenting the grant, said, “At Perdue, we believe that in a country as rich in resources as ours, no one should have to go hungry. That is why Perdue partners with Feeding America and its network of community food banks and pantries, of which the Food Bank of Delaware is a valued member, to ensure the safe and effective distribution of our protein product donations. We recognize the valuable role the food bank plays in the communities in which our associates live and work in Delaware, and we’re proud to lend our support through this foundation grant.”

Last year, Perdue donated nearly 1.1 million pounds of protein to the Food Bank of Delaware through the company’s distribution center in Georgetown. Perdue ships a tractor-trailer loaded with donated product every other week to the food bank.

For more information about the Food Bank of Delaware and the expansion of its Milford facility, go to www.fbd.org or call 302-292-1305.

The Arthur W. Perdue Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable foundation established in 1957 by the founder of Perdue Incorporated. Grants are distributed for the improvement of life in the community through support of the arts, community development, education, health, human services and youth activities.

For more information, contact Perdue spokesperson Julie DeYoung at 410-341-2533 or go to www.perdue.com