LEARN2 - Delaware's Food Insecurity

My search started by simply typing “food security Delaware” into Google and scrolling through the links. The first on the list is this: http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/June07/Features/Struggling.htm. It’s a fairly interesting article that shows how food security is measured. It mentions food insecurity as being relatively low in my particular state. I’m a little surprised it’s not more of a problem considering the high cost of living here. Further down the page is a link to information gathered by Delaware’s Food Bank: http://www.udreview.com/povertyline/foodbank-de/food-bank-of-delaware-s-2010-hunger-report-1.1129093. This link shows that of the people in Delaware who are in emergency food programs, 72% are food insecure and there are about 17,500 people using these programs any given week.

I visited the Food Bank of Delaware site to see what sort of programs they have. Aside from food drives, they have a lot of programs focusing on teaching proper nutrition to children and adults in emergency food programs since much of the cheap food one can buy are calorie-dense with little nutrients. There’s also a program that encourages people in the community to plant gardens and donate excess produce to the food bank. I wanted to plant an herb garden this summer. Maybe I’ll throw in a row of vegetables as well.

I also found a program called Sportsmen Against Hunger here where hunters will donate excess game meat to the hungry. This year, they donated over 26,000 lbs of venison. I can’t really seem to find any programs in Delaware that help with food insecurity aside from donations.