LOVE-IN-DEED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Love-In-Deed Food Closet. The LIDCDC Food Closet operates throughout the year servicing residential and homeless individuals of Delaware every 3rd Saturday of each month who are in need of emergency food relief, clothing, and personal hygienic items. Volunteers work throughout the month collecting, sorting, packaging, and distributing food by way of drive-up food giveaways, or clients who walk up to the site. Each month 6,000 lbs of food is distributed to about 180-200 families. Boxes and bags are packaged to feed a family of four approx. 3-4 days. Partnerships have been established between the LIDCDC food closet and local and regional businesses and community agencies such as The New Castle County Community Services, Westside Family Healthcare, Nemours Children's Hospital, and Amazon. The food closet also has partnerships with local grocers and food suppliers such as Bimbo Bakery, Shoprite, Acme, and Food Lion. Traffic flow is directed with the support of DelDot (Delaware Dept of Transportation). Program funds utilized to create a Superfoods Urban Garden in support of providing fresh produce for food closet visitors, and used as visual topic lessons on healthy eating for youth in the RISE Program. Youth participants were also educated on moving onto better nutritional habits and learned how to plant a garden. Other program funds were allocated to equipment purchases: conveyors, refrigeration, and platform trucks and dollies to aid in the harvesting and storage of produce.

R.I.S.E. (Reaching Independence & Self Empowerment) Program. R.I.S.E. is program that educates, instructs, and guides youth and young adults aging out of foster care with life-skill training to assist their successful transition into adulthood. The program offers a broad range of life-skill trainings such as money management, college searching, housekeeping, time-management, renter's rights, cooking, and other topics to help young people prioritize and commit to reaching their personal goals and creating a stable future. The program is designed to operate 11 months each year, with teaching sessions and workshops provided twice a month. Some sessions are onsite that include professional speakers and some sessions consist of college trips and career tours. In support of the R.I.S.E. program, the organization made capital renovations at the site to install a new intercom and security system for students. Equipment install included video cameras in four areas of parking lot and blind spots to ensure student safety.