The Delaware Grocery Initiative distributes $250,000 in its latest set of checks to grantees in an effort to combat food desserts in the First State.
Last month, State Sen. Darius Brown (D-New Castle), in collaboration with the Delaware Division of Small Business, announced 22 grant recipients would receive funds anywhere from $5,000 to $12,500.
Sen. Brown championed Senate Bill 254 last year, which required the state to develop a holistic strategy for reducing food insecurity and created the grant program to help strengthen the existing network of small businesses, nonprofits and other organizations currently providing underserved communities with some of their only access to fresh, healthy food.
Expanded Branches Community Development Center is one of the organizations to earn the maximum amount of funding and received their check Tuesday.
The grant will be used for Fresh Produce Friday, a program led by Cindy Pollard through The Resurrection Center Church in Wilmington.
Pollard explains the church has already been handing out nonperishable food items on Sundays, “But what this grant allowed us to do was to be able to serve the public in a very different way and a larger population of the public. So on the first Friday of each month, we make sure that fresh produce is available," she said.
Fresh Product Friday kicked off in July, but Pollard says the awarded $12,500 will help keep the program alive.
Pollard says participants have to sign up for the program, but she says this is a strategic decision to better serve the needs of the community.
“Some people said, ‘Why not stand out and just pass it out?’ Well, there's a reason for that, and that's because we want to make connection. It's not just giving you a bag of food, a basket of food, it's connecting with you, finding out what your needs are, finding out how this helps you, does it even help you and if the foods we are providing for you are the best for your body.”
Interested members of the community can sign up at The Resurrection Center Church on Sunday mornings or on the first Thursday of the month at the North Wilmington Library or Police Athletic League (PAL) of Wilmington.
This is the fourth round of grant funding under the First State Food System Grant Program, which has awarded nearly $2 million to 39 food programs since 2022.
Sen. Brown explains the Delaware Division of Small Business will open up subsequent rounds of funding in the coming months to distribute the remaining $1.15 million in funding allocated to the program.
"For us, it's about our colleagues in the General Assembly believing in this work, recognizing that there's food deserts up and down the state, and we're able to do this work, not just in Wilmington, but literally for residents up and down the state and helping the most vulnerable, our seniors and our youth, and to make sure that they have access to healthy foods," Sen. Brown said.
State Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha co-sponsored SB 254 with Sen. Brown, and Expanded Branches Community Development Center happens to fall within both of their districts, making the check award process particularly special for the two lawmakers.
"These are are truly the hubs of our community. These are the the the hearts of our community," Rep. Chukwuocha said. "They're providing these supports, and it means the world. And we have senior centers up and down Market Street, so seniors can come here close to to our PAL, our new library — so this will truly be a help for our community and providing these valuable resources."
The next Fresh Produce Friday is on September 5 at The Resurrection Center from 11 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Other grant recipients include:
- DE Nature Society
- Farmacy Market
- FLOW Inc
- Forever Freeze Co.
- G’s DElights LLC
- Heritage Urban Farms
- Hispanic American Assoc. of DE Inc.
- Jefferson Street Center
- Lutheran Community Services, Inc
- Milford Advocacy for the Homeless
- Native Roots Farm Foundation
- One Purpose Food Pantry Corp.
- Route 9 Community Development Corp.
- Sussex County Kitchen Incubator,
- The HOPP
- The Ministry of Caring Inc.
- The Wooly Bully Inc.
- Unique Minds Changing Lives Inc.
- West End Neighborhood House
- Woodenhawk Farms, Inc.
- YWCA Delaware Inc.
