Maryland Food Bank Mobile Market distributes 2,500 pounds of fresh food in Deal Island
DEAL ISLAND, Md – Representatives from the Maryland Food Bank (MFB) and the Perdue Foundation, helped distribute roughly 2,500 pounds of fresh produce and Perdue-donated products during a Mobile Market food distribution event at the Deal Island Volunteer Fire Department.
The event was in recognition of a recent $80,000 grant to support MFB’s hunger-relief programming on the Eastern Shore.
The area is at least a 20-minute drive to the nearest grocery store, but thanks to the mobile pantry truck from the Maryland foodbank, that experience came to them.
“We’re kind of getting out face to face with communities’ critical role here in Somerset County, where the need is perhaps one of the greatest in our state,” said Maryland Food Bank CEO Carmen Del Guercio adding ” We wanted to find ways to reach people in harder to reach communities, perhaps a little bit smaller, perhaps a bit more rural, but maybe not conducive to some of the other larger scale programs we have.”
Del Guercio tells 47ABC the mobile market gives people the experience of picking out the food they themselves want, giving them the dignity to pick what they would like to feed themselves and their families.
“As people walk through our vehicle, there’s going to be racks of different types of product for them to take, fresh peaches, chicken, beef, dry goods, all sorts of combinations that they can then choose wherever is appropriate for them, as opposed to us giving them a box of prepackaged food,” he said.
Perdue Foundation Executive Director Kim Nechay says they have partnered with the Maryland Food Bank for over 40 years and have seen the need grow for their services across the state.
“Food insecurity is something that too many of our neighbors deal with in the world today, and so we’re really grateful to be able to invest in a program like the mobile market to might help make a difference,” Nechay said.
The Maryland Food Bank says their ramping up their efforts to meet those needs- looking for partners like Perdue and others to help them reach as many people as they can.
“We’re pulling multiple levers, we’re looking at our partner network every day where our partners are physically located today, asking do we have a proper presence in communities that may be the needs are greatest? How do we expand our partner network programs like Mobile Market? How do we reach smaller communities,” Del Guercio said.
The Maryland Food Bank tells us those who are in need of finding resources near them can visit md.foodbank.org and enter their zipcode.
