The coronavirus pandemic is not preventing the Food Bank of Delaware from providing for Delawareans in need.
Over the last three weeks, the Food Bank of Delaware has served over 900 families each week at their Healthy Pantry Centers in Newark and Milford with a high of 1,055 families served the week of March 30.
Food Bank officials say their current inventory is fine, and they are placing orders further in advance to build up and maintain that inventory because there’s been a slower turnaround in receiving deliveries from vendors.
"We are scheduled out with USDA deliveries through December of 2020 so unless there's a serious disruption to that supply chain I don't think we have any concerns at this point so here in Delaware we're doing well," said the Food Bank's Kim Turner.
And Turner says their Newark facility helps them maintain their quantities of food.
"We are fortunate that we have an 80,000 square foot facility where we can store a lot more food than maybe a smaller food bank," said Turner. "If we were in our old facility, that was maybe about 42,000 square feet, we would be in trouble right now because we wouldn't have been able to bring in all the truck loads that we have over the past 6 months or so."
Turner adds the food pantries that partner with the Food Bank of Delaware are also doing fine.
The Food Bank of Delaware has also been able to hold pop-up pantries at Coventry Park in New Castle, the Route 9 Innovation Center and at Mobile Parks in Kent and Sussex Counties.
