Delaware Does More, Did More, and Will Do More!

This morning I attended the Delaware Does More Victory Event in Newark. Back in November, the goal was set to raise 300,000 pounds of food and $250,000 for emergency shelter and utility assistance.

It was announced today that we raised 343,000 pounds of food and over $300,000 for shelter and utilities. Wow! That is awesome!

Here are some highlights from the celebration:

Government leaders Lt. Gov. Denn, Sen. Carper, and Rep. Castle were on hand to thank everyone for their efforts. “It takes a whole lot of people,” said Rep. Castle, “and you have made a huge difference.”

J.B. Braun of the News Journal spoke about “the power and the speed of how quickly this thing went.” He noted that the food barrel became a symbol for the drive, with 750 participating organizations listed (see picture). He then said the initiative was here to stay. “Delaware Does More is not over; it’s now a brand.”

Tyrone Jones of AstraZeneca followed up on this theme: “We’re not going to stop here, because the need is still there.”

Gary Stockbridge of Delmarva Power summed up why the effort was so successful. “We took advantage of existing relationships in the community; we didn’t reinvent anything.”

Bernadette Winston of Kingswood Community Center shared some of the stories of people who benefited. One individual came for help after losing her job at the same time her husband went into the hospital. $400 in assistance kept her from getting her power disconnected and saved her from going into crisis mode.

Catherine Ciesielski of the Rose Hill Community Center said that her organization alone was able to keep 4064 people from going hungry over the last 4 months.

In their closing remarks, Patricia Beebe of the Food Bank and Michelle Taylor of United Way thanked all the volunteers, businesses, organizations, and staff who took part. In particular, they recognized four children from Newark who went out with two wagons on a 20 degree day, and collected 1000 pounds of food, enough to feed 32 families for 4 days. Go kids!

Delaware Does More will start a new phase to be announced in the coming months. They could not tell us much today, but said it would involve produce and gardening. Stay tuned and we’ll let you know when we hear what it is!

Brandywine Counseling is proud to have been a part of this drive. If you haven’t checked out our photos yet, please do – they’re hilarious. Thank you once again, Delaware. You did more!!!