Sussex County helps fund local food bank branch

The Food Bank of Delaware received an unexpected gift from the Sussex County Council Tuesday when leaders presented the organization with a $25,000 check.

The money will help fund the expansion of the Food Bank’s Milford Branch which will be double the size of its current building. The cost to expand is just over $2 million dollars and a large portion of it will be poured into the construction of an industrial-sized kitchen to prepare meals for families and serve as a culinary school.

“Hunger touches so many lives and it reaches all corners of our state, including right here in Sussex County,” said Sussex County Council President Michael H. Vincent.

The Culinary School at the Food Bank of Delaware will serve under-employed and unemployed adults in the southern part of the state, including the disabled and individuals in prison re-entry programs.

“Residents of Sussex County are depending on us to meet the emergency food and job training needs of our community,” said Food Bank of Delaware President and CEO Patricia Beebe.

The organization expects to have the expansion completed within the year, not long after the groundbreaking that’s scheduled in September. The culinary school will make number two for the Food Bank which already has a culinary program at its Newark location.