REHOBOTH BEACH, Del.- Tons of food and bags of donations. Monday kicked off DART's week long, Stuff the Bus event.
After heading inside Safeway, shoppers returned with bags of food. The goal, to get as many donations, if not more, as last years event.
"We ended up stuffing four buses like this one behind us and we ended up collecting four and a half tons of food. We always have a Thanksgiving one and last Thanksgiving we ended up collecting over 11 tons," said Patty Boyd with DART First State.
The Food Bank of Delaware says since last March, they have received over 42-thousand visits. Last fiscal year, before the pandemic hit, the food bank had distributed about 8.5 million pounds of food. That number has increased.
"Everyone needs food. There's such a need out right there right now and it's the smallest thing I could do," said Sue Greer, who donated food on Monday,
You can donate any non-perishable food item, but items like peanut butter, canned meat, and other high protein foods are at the top of the list of necessities.
"Tuna, salmon, chicken, and cereal. So those are some of the high value items they really like to keep in stock," said Boyd.
If you can't make it to a Stuff the Bus location this week, there are still ways to help.
"You can give a monetary donation and sometimes that goes even further than dropping off food. A 10 dollar donation can provide almost 30 meals so if you can't make it to us consider donating online," said Boyd.
You can view the full list of Stuff the Bus locations and times here:
Monday, April 26: Safeway, 19283 Coastal Highway, Rehoboth, 9 AM - 4 PM
Tuesday, April 27: Safeway, 190 John Hunn Brown Rd., Dover, 9 AM - 4 PM
Wednesday, April 28: ShopRite of First State Plaza, 1600 W. Newport Pike, Stanton, 9 AM - 4 PM
Thursday, April 29: ShopRite of Four Seasons, 700 Plaza Dr., Newark, 9 AM - 4 PM
Friday, April 30: ShopRite of Brandywine Commons, 1300 Rocky Run Parkway, Wilmington, 9 AM - 4 PM