Sen. Carper Spends Monday, June 12th in New Castle and Kent Counties,

Wilmington, DE – On Monday, June 12, 2006, Senator Tom Carper will spend the day in New Castle and Kent Counties. The Senator will start his morning by helping kick off the Summer Food Program at the Food Bank of Delaware. He will prepare meals and be joined by Food Bank staff and board members. The Summer Food Service Program provides freshly-prepared meals daily throughout the state. In the summer of 2005, SFSP prepared over 241,000 meals (a 100% increase from 2004) for hungry children, and this summer of 2006 SFSP is projecting to make 246,000 meals. Senator Carper will then visit the Delaware Elwyn Adult Day Care Program. The newly renovated facility cost $3 million and provides an additional 4,000 square feet of space for the program, which increasingly serves people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The renovation also gives capacity to serve an additional 15 participants (for a total of 65), and the area has been reconfigured to be enclosed and secure. Delaware Elwyn began in 1974 and today serves over 1,000 individuals who face obstacles to full participation in their communities. Next, the Senator will attend the Grand Opening of the Odyssey Charter School. Odyssey Charter School is a new public charter school opening in September 2006. Housing grades K-5, Odyssey is Delaware’s first mathematics-focused, Greek language immersion charter school. Up to 130 students will be admitted the first year with total enrollment expected to reach 290 by their fourth year of operation. Carper is a long-time advocate of charter schools and as Governor, his administration created the legislation that guides charter schools in Delaware. The Senator will then be the first person to see, first-hand, a test run of the equipment at the new soy bio-diesel facility plant in Clayton. The Senator will be joined by Marty Ross, Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel Project Director and Marlene Elliott, USDA Rural Development State Director. The facility will open later this summer, but the Senator will be on-hand to see a “dry run” of the facility he helped work to create. Last month, Carper joined other senior Democrats to introduce comprehensive legislation aimed at making America energy independent by 2020. The Clean EDGE Act of 2006 calls for a major investment in the research, development, and production of new energy-efficient vehicles, renewable fuels and clean-energy technologies. Using tax incentives and the government’s massive purchasing power, the bill would increase the production of alt-fuel cars and trucks, like hybrids and flex-fuel vehicles, while leveling the playing field for renewable fuels, like biodiesel and new ethanol technologies. Among the provisions in the bill is legislation that extends the biodiesel production tax credit through 2014 and requires the federal government to start using newly blended biodiesel fuels immediately. Within 5 years, 20 percent of the federal government’s diesel vehicles would have to burn biodiesel, increasing to 80 percent within 10 years. The Clean EDGE Act sets a national goal of installing alternative fuels at 10 percent of American gas stations by 2015. His day will end with a stop at Broadmeadow Healthcare, a new nursing care facility in Middletown. The facility, which opened in the fall of 2005, is a new, state-of-the-art facility that offers its residents the highest quality skilled nursing and rehabilitation services in a caring, safe environment. Monday, June 12, 2006 9:00 am – 10:00 am Kick-Off Summer Lunch Program Food Bank of Delaware 7 Garfield Way Newark 10:30 am – 11:15 am Tour Delaware Elwyn Adult Day Care Program 321 E. 11th Street Wilmington 11:30 am – 12:30 pm Grand Opening of Odyssey Charter School 3821 Lancaster Avenue Wilmington 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Test-Run/Visit to Mid-Atlantic Bio-diesel Facility School Lane Clayton 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Tour Broadmeadow Healthcare Center 500 S. Broad Street Middletown