Maryland Food Bank highlights partnership with local farmers

FEDERALSBURG, Md. – For forty years now, the Maryland Food Bank has been feeding the hungry. To celebrate their anniversary, the Food Bank has been traveling to various locations across the state to highlight some of their key programs.

On Monday, members of the Food Bank paid a visit to Federalsburg to shine a light on their Farm to Food Bank program.

Carmen Del Guercio, the CEO of the Maryland Food Bank explained, “It generates over three million pounds of fresh produce each year.”

The event took place at the Hay Jay Acres farm in Federalsburg Monday because this was one of the first farms to get involved in the program.

Del Guercio said, “This farm here, they were one of our first farms to join the program. Today we have over fifty across the state.”

Dozens of volunteers showed up to Monday’s event to collect fresh cucumber from the ground, that otherwise would have gone to waste. All of this cucumber will be donated to the Food Bank, and that’s how this program works.

Ashley Hall, a volunteer said, “We love the opportunity to serve and to serve our neighborhood and when we found out about this wonderful program, we decided to jump on it and get out here and help the community out.”

The Maryland Food Bank provides 40 million meals to people each year and a good chunk of those meals are made possible by farmers who participate in this program.

Del Guercio said, “We distribute about 8 million pounds of fresh produce three million of it comes from the Farm to Food Bank program in and of itself.”

Perdue Farms also plays a big part in making this all happen.

Jim Perdue, the Chairman of Perdue Farms said, “We’re a big partner, have been for a long time. We have a lot of folks in the company who volunteer at the Food Bank in Salisbury. Today, we have about 25 Perdue people here volunteering to harvest these cucumbers that were left in the field for the Food Bank.”

This was all part of the Food Bank’s “It takes more than food to end hunger” campaign, a 40-week statewide initiative that celebrates their 40-year history.

If you’re interested in contributing to the Farm to Food Bank effort, you can sign up to volunteer at the Maryland Food Bank website.