‘Huge demand’: Delaware food pantries see long lines for free Thanksgiving dinners

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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Delawareans waited in long lines at a mobile food pantry in Wilmington to pick up a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving this week.

Marianne Gracia was one of those who visited the pantry Monday to get food for her family. She said it’s been a tough year financially because her sister and her brother-in-law are disabled and unable to work.

“We’re all living stressfully,” she said. “But I came out to get this for my sister, and have a nice time together.”

The Food Bank of Delaware has been holding large drive-through mobile pantries in each of Delaware’s three counties. Kim Turner, vice president of communications for the Food Bank, said they’ve served about 4,500 families in Kent and Sussex counties and expect to serve about 2,500 more in New Castle County.

Turner said the need has been critical since the start of the pandemic, even with the government aid in the first few years.

“While all of those interventions that were in place, we actually saw a decrease in the number of people coming out to the food bank,” she said. “When those ended, inflation also hit. So since then, it’s just been a huge demand in our community.”

The Wilmington food pantry Gracia visited this week has been sponsored over the past six years by state Rep. Kim Williams, D-Stanton, and state Sens. Jack Walsh, D-Pike Creek, and Spiros Mantzavinos, D-Elsmere.

“It’s just a resource we want to provide to those who may need a little more extra help during the holiday season,” Williams said. “We’re happy to do this.”

Turner said while it’s the holiday season, it’s also important to remember many Delawareans are food insecure year-round. A 2022 study from Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks and pantries, shows more than 120,100 Delawareans are facing hunger, 37,680 of them are children. That means 1 in 8 people and 1 in 6 children in the First State are food insecure.

“Come January, our donations are going to drop significantly,” Turner said. “So we encourage people to keep our neighbors in mind during those cold winter months when oftentimes low-income people are choosing between heating their home or buying groceries.”