The sharp rise in home deliveries during the pandemic has extended to food packages for those in need.
The Food Bank of Delaware has partnered with DoorDash and Amazon in a pilot program for free home delivery of food boxes of food.
With people using online services to order daily essentials or medical supplies, the increased need for food delivery during the pandemic was no different. Delivery became a lifeline for many.
“It was a convenience before, and then it became a necessity,” said Cathy Kanefsky, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Delaware.
The Food Bank of Delaware typically distributes 8-10 million pounds of food per year.
Amidst the pandemic, they distributed 15,536,854 pounds during the last fiscal year alone, with New Castle County fulfilling most of that need, followed by Kent County and Sussex County.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over 38 million people in the United States don’t have access to enough food. This is a drastic increase from the 13.8 million, or 10.5%, of U.S. households that were food insecure in 2020 and 2019.
In Delaware, 114,190 individuals may have needed help with food in 2021.
“Obviously, we know that people in Delaware need us. There are too many people that are food insecure,” Kanefsky said. “That demand means we have to get more food out, and how are we going to do that?”
The answer to that is utilizing delivery services to reach more people, she said.
The delivery program currently operates out of two of the food bank’s locations in Glasgow and Wilmington and offers food delivery through DoorDash to Delaware residents living within a 15-mile radius of these facilities.
For those living outside of the radius, the Amazon home delivery program can be used.
Using the home delivery program website, an order for up to two food packages can be placed for delivery or pickup each week.
Orders can be placed “ASAP” or scheduled for a later time at checkout. Immediate orders usually take about an hour to be delivered.
While the program is still taking off, ordering windows will vary based on location, and delivery windows will be limited.
The AmazonFlex delivery portion of the program began in July of 2020 and has made over 12,000 deliveries totaling 169,000 meals.
“One of the things we wanna highlight with this is you’re giving people so much more flexibility and dignity,” said Bettina Stix, Amazon director of Right Now Needs and Disaster Relief. “It’s an enormous convenience game for recipients.”
Through DoorDash, 784 deliveries have been made since the company’s partnership with the food bank began in July of 2021.
In September, DoorDash’s Project DASH celebrated its 1,000,000 delivery to those in need through this partnership. The New Castle recipient was a single mother of two twins with autism, and the package was presented by Delaware’s first lady, Tracey Quillen Carney.
“There’s two huge stigma issues: Some people might not be comfortable saying ‘I need help’ or they don’t have a way to get there,” said Brittany Graunke, director of DoorDash Drive’s Government and Non-profit team. “We really recognized that food banks had to innovate during the pandemic.”
Through a survey they conducted with the food bank in which they assessed whether community members were comfortable with online deliveries and able to do so, they found that many were eager to try the program and excited about how easy the process was, she said, adding that their overall goal is to serve more individuals across the state.
Both services pick up the food packages the same way they would other delivery orders and the packages come with an order receipt that is nondescript and similar to that of restaurant takeout or grocery deliveries.
Although the DoorDash delivery operates only in New Castle County, the Food Bank of Delaware’s Milford location will join the efforts later this month.
Milford location details:After record year of need, Food Bank of Delaware plans expansion in Milford
A new food bank location in Milford, across from the organization’s current pantry facility, will start construction in May and is expected to open at the end of summer in 2023.
Plans to create more food bank delivery hubs across the rest of the state are also in the works.
“There’s not a pocket of Delaware that’s not touched. You can’t find a 15-mile radius where someone is not food insecure. Our goal is to reach all of Delaware,” Kanefsky said.
