MILFORD, Del. - Food, skills and careers, that is what the new Milford branch Food Bank of Delaware facility is all about. Jan. 15, the ribbon was cut on the 70,000 square-foot building that will replace the previous one down the street on Mattlind Way.
Unlike the old facility, this one has expanded on culinary classes, a cafe ran by graduates, a logistics training program, a 3.5 acre garden, storage with the capabilities of holding 3.7 million pounds of fresh food and 6 million pounds of nonperishable food, a volunteer packing room and a pantry that acts as a grocery store so people in need of donations can choose what items they want with more independence.
Funding for this project includes $7 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and other local donors.
This project has been in the works for nearly three years but officially broke ground in Sep. 2022. The first donation made to the new building was from Perdue. Two truckloads of chicken, equivalent to over 80,000 pounds, is the largest donation the nonprofit has been able to accept thanks to the larger storage capacity of this building.
According to CEO and President of the Food Bank of Delaware, Cathy Kanefsky, said this comes at a time when 1 in 9 Delawareans do not have enough food to eat.
"We are doing whatever we can to help put food on people's tables, whether that means putting it in backpacks, putting it in their cars, if they're coming to us." said Kanefsky, "But almost equally important is helping people get footing and get their selves on track to help them sustain their livelihood."
Volunteers like Sarah Biondello said this new building will help them to help others more efficiently,
"It's going to be great. Not only the size, but before we were in two different buildings. So the warehouse and the volunteer room and the offices were in one building. And then the pantry, which is what this is, was in a separate building. And so now we're connected."
Applications for the next culinary class are being accepted. The first class begins on Jan. 29.
The cafe on-site ran by culinary class graduates is open to the public for both breakfast and lunch.