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, nd Amazon. The food closet also has partnerships with local grocers and food suppliers such as Bimbo Bakery, Shoprite, Acme, nd Food Lion. Traffic flow is directed with the support of DelDot (Delaware Dept of Transportation). Capital funds used for program to renovate and expand subpar spaces, flooring, and ventilation in the storage and distribution areas of food closet. This renovation improved spacing for more refrigeration equipment to store more produce and meat products, upgraded space for non-perishable inventory, upgraded volunteer restroom to make handicap accessible, installed ventilation system in restroom, and made area more secure by replacing damaged exit/entryway door.

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. Capital funds used to renovate and ventilate large intake hallway entry foyer, drywall, paint, carpet, replace doors, upgrade men's and women's restrooms (eight stalls), and add an intake reception desk. Other program expenses were utilized to purchase computer equipment for financial exercises and career searches, professional speaker fees, college admission fees, recruitment community event day, student transportation, refreshments, end-of-program year award ceremony celebration, and awards for students.