The Food Bank of Delaware is gearing up to help more hungry Delawareans at its second series of drive-thru mobile food pantries this year.
The Food Bank of Delaware plans to increase capacity for its mobile food pantry in Dover next Wednesday, March 3, 2021 after one in January ran out of food minutes after the scheduled start time.
“So we’ll bring probably enough for 500 additional families," said Food Bank Communications Director Kim Turner. "If we have to, we’ll take some back to the warehouse to distribute out of our food pantries, that’s fine. We thought maybe after the holidays, things would ease up a little bit, but that wasn’t the case. So we’ll be ready for the March influx of people who are in line to receive the assistance.”
Turner says they’ll be prepared to assist 1,500 families at that Dover event.
Additional events are set for Monday, March 1 at Crossroad Community Church in Georgetown and Friday, March 5 at Delaware Tech in Stanton.
Turner notes that Food Bank staff is seeing a number of “repeat customers” at these drive-thru pantries.
She adds the Food Bank is partnering with the University of Delaware on a study on people utilizing the drive-thru distributions. About 69% of respondents say they were not using food pantries prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
Turner adds that when she helps register people at these events, many tell her “I’ve never needed to do this before. What do I do?” She says that’s an indication of just how many Delawareans are on the edge of not having enough money for food, bills and even prescriptions.
The Food Bank hosted 27 drive-thru mobile food pantries locally in 2020, distributing three million pounds of food.
