Home Care In Milford, DE

For an 18-month pilot program, MammogramNow will launch this Friday at the Walmart Supercenter in Milford. | PHOTO COURTESY OF RADNET

MILFORD – To expand breast cancer screening, RadNet, a national radiology company, will launch a screening unit that can utilize artificial intelligence in an 18-month pilot program Friday at the Walmart in Milford.

RadNet and Delaware Imaging Network (DIN) have collaborated to launch MammogramNow, a breast cancer screening technology, that will complete walk-in or scheduled mammograms in 15 minutes. The long-term goal of the program is to provide same-day results. Patients can also opt-in for Enhanced Breast Cancer Detection which incorporates artificial intelligence for disease detection for an out-of-pocket cost.

“Women are so busy with careers and caretaking, with about 42% reporting that they are burned out. We want to make this crucial appointment as easy as possible, so that women can fit this life-saving exam into their schedules,” Dr. Jacqueline Holt, medical director of Women’s Imaging at Delaware Imaging Network, told Delaware Business Times. “This level of convenience empowers women to finally take care of themselves. Mammograms save women’s lives, and that’s why we’re bringing it right into the community at Walmart.”

The mammogram will gently compress the breast four times for 3.7 seconds and take about 15 minutes to complete. | PHOTO COURTESY OF RADNET

In partnership with Walmart, RadNet is launching a pilot program to make breast cancer screening more accessible, primarily due to the fact that 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart. Over the 18-month program, RadNet will raise breast health awareness and may expand MammogramNow to additional locations.

The American Cancer Society reports there is a one in eight chance a woman will develop breast cancer. The society recommends that women between the ages of 45 to 54 should be screened for breast cancer every year. Women 55 years old and older should switch to mammograms every two years or continue yearly screening. The detection of one of the most common types of cancer in its early stages has a 99% survival rate.

MammogramNow is covered by most insurances as part of the annual mammogram screening for individuals over 40 years old. For those without insurance, RadNet states that there will be an affordable out-of-pocket charge for the screening.

“With MammogramNow, we are endeavoring to improve population health and encourage preventative care. RadNet currently performs close to 5% of all mammograms in the United States annually, and the pilot with Walmart is designed to provide even greater, convenient access for women, driving better compliance with annual breast cancer screening guidelines,” RadNet President & CEO Dr. Howard Berger said in a statement. “Our ability to offer leading-edge hardware, software, and AI technologies in a non-traditional health care location, such as a highly-trafficked retail location like a Walmart Supercenter, could become a new paradigm for the future of consumer healthcare and preventative medicine.”

With the holiday season behind us, Downtown Milford, Inc. (DMI) hopes to keep the excitement going downtown with a brand new event, Jammin’ January. For the month of January, downtown merchants will offer specials, whether it be fun entertainment, crafts or specialty items.

“It seemed like this holiday season was extra special downtown,” Janne Collins, Executive Director of DMI said. “We thought this was a great way to just keep celebrating the wonderful things we have in our downtown area.”

Merchants are simply asked to reach out to DMI and let them know what they plan to offer throughout the month. The event, special or entertainment will be added to the new DMI activity calendar. This calendar is free and accessible by anyone clicking this link. Once the DMi website has been updated in the next few months, a link will be added for easy access. A card with a QR code is also available in the DMI office to carry in a wallet in order to access the calendar easily while on the go or click on the Event Board link and just save it to your phone screen for easy use.

“There are already several events added to the calendar for the month,” Collins said. “We hope to see it filled with musicians, food specials and more at all of our downtown locations.”

One event coming up for the month is Fiesta de Reyes en Milford at My Sister’s Fault. This event celebrates the traditions of Epiphany on January 6 from 10 AM to 12 PM. It is designed for children aged 5 to 11 with crafts, games, music and storytime. My Sister’s Fault is located at 10 Southwest Front Street in Milford. On Saturday, January 13, the Milford Senior Center will hold a Helping Hands Free Community Event offering free items from clothing to shoes, hair cuts, food and more. The event is from 10 AM until Noon at the Milford Senior Center, 111 Park Avenue and is sponsored by the Milford Advocacy for the Homeless.

Any organization who wishes to add their information to the community calendar can do so by emailing [email protected]. Once approved, the event will be added to the calendar.

With a focus on aesthetic services and products for skin care, beauty enhancement, wellness promotion and common skin concerns, Phases Medical Spa is the vision of Amber Sharp and her husband, Mark Hammel. The couple has a strong background in the medical field with Sharp holding an MSN degree from Wilmington University and Hammel a registered nurse.

“I earned my MSN with a family nurse practitioner focus,” Sharp said. “Since graduation, I have worked as a primary care provider at Atlantic Family Physicians. Before becoming a nurse practitioner, I was a registered nurse at the Delaware Hospice Center and the Bayhealth Sussex Campus.”

Last year, Sharp, who grew up in Milford, re-enrolled in Wilmington University to begin seeking a dual DNP/MBA degree. Hammel, who grew up in Coronado, California, graduated from the Beebe School of Nursing. Although he has worked in almost every nursing specialty, Hammel has a calling for home hospice. Before he became an RN, Hammel was a histologist while serving in the United States Air Force and also as a civilian at the Mayo Clinic. The couple is expecting their first grandchild who they both say they cannot wait to spoil.

“Growing up going to the beach always included a beach umbrella, a big beach hat and lots of sunblock because my grandmother had very sensitive skin and an allergy to the sun” Sharp said. “Sometimes, even if she took all the precautions, she would still have a reaction, so she had to be extra careful and take special care of her skin. This is what sparked my interest in skin care and healthcare, ultimately leading to my pursuit of becoming a medical provider and opening a practice that combines the two.”

The new spa, which will be located at 1012 North Walnut Street in the Walnut Street Professional Center, will offer cosmetic injections, skin rejuvenation therapies, IV infusions, vitamin shots as well as medical ear and nose piercing. They also plan to offer a line of retail products that include medical grade skin care products, prescriptions, supplements and more. Sharp explained they also plan to carry medical grade titanium and nickel free jewelry.

“Time management has been challenging,” Sharp said. “Trying to juggle our careers while turning my dream into reality has not been easy.”

The challenges are worth it, though, Sharp explained.

“As nurses, we understand the impact of how a person feels can affect their wellbeing,” Sharp said. “We are looking forward to expanding our reach in improving lives and helping people feel good on the inside as well as the outside. As dedicated lifetime learners w will stay up with new technologies and add new services based on client interests. Mark has expressed an interest in microblading so we may add permanent make-up in the future.”

The website for Phases Medical Spa will be activated in mid-November, then published on Google. Once the website is activated, the couple plans to release a Facebook page as well as an Instagram page that will be found @phasesmedspa. Appointments will begin in mid-November.

MILFORD — Giant Food is closing its fulfillment centers, including a small one in Milford, come Oct. 21.

Giant Food of Maryland, a grocery chain with 165 stores in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., announced it was re-evaluating its options for grocery delivery services. The company has three fulfillment centers in Milford, Hanover, Md.; and Manassas, Va.; with a collective 400 employees.

Giant Food did not provide Delaware Business Times with exact employee numbers at the Milford facility. However, the Milford warehouse is a small, cross-dock center compared to the two other centers facing closure. The Manassas center is 80,000 square feet, while the one in Hanover is 150,000 square feet in size.

“Our ambition at Giant is to meet the changing needs of our delivery… faster delivery, more delivery time slots and a broader assortment. We are adapting our operating structure to better meet those needs and to provide this important service through a local fulfillment model,” Giant spokesperson Jon Arons told DBT on Tuesday.

Giant Food launched its home delivery service, Giant Delivers, in 2019 as the latest iteration of its former Peapod by Giant grocery delivery service. The D.C.-based regional chain boasted availability for next-day home delivery to 6 million shoppers living in the area. Customers could order online or through a smartphone app after entering their zip code.

Giant Delivers was one of the few services in place before the COVID-19 pandemic made grocery delivery an ideal option for vulnerable populations, and e-commerce and similar options have boomed in the three years since.

But for Giant, customers who ordered through the delivery service could expect their order to be fulfilled out of the small Milford warehouse or two others in Maryland or Virginia.

The Manassas fulfillment facility opened in May 2023, with 200 employees and aimed to deliver 10,000 grocery orders per week. Plans this summer were to offer hyper-local foods in Virginia to online shoppers as well as beers from local breweries.

“Delivery is still an integral part of our omni-channel growth strategy, which strives to meet all the ways customers want to shop,” Arons added. “We are working to finalize the fulfillment model to best serve our customers.”

Exact jobs lost in the Giant Food network is unknown, as employees at the fulfillment centers will have the opportunity to apply for other positions.

Giant Food has six stores in Delaware: Wilmington, Bear, Middletown, Millville, Millsboro, and Rehoboth Beach.

Over the past five years, food distribution in Kent and Sussex counties from the Food Bank of Delaware’s Milford branch increased 79%, so where do you store all that food?

Some is delivered to the nonprofit’s other facility in Glasgow, which cuts the space available for items being distributed in New Castle County.

With more items to sort and pack, more volunteers are needed along with space to accommodate them.

Meanwhile, the Food Bank is trying to help people learn job skills, with training to work in restaurants, cafeterias and warehouses.

With all the needs, the nonprofit had to rent an additional building.

But now with donations, grants and government support, the Food Bank is expanding operations in Milford in a big way.

A 67,000-square-foot facility under construction on Delaware Veterans Boulevard west of Route 113 is more than four times larger than the current 16,000-square-foot facility on Mattlind Way. Groundbreaking was held Sept. 29, and completion is set for this fall.

“This is more than just a building – it symbolizes hope for so many,” said Food Bank of Delaware president and chief executive officer Cathy Kanefsky.

About $5 million is needed to complete the $34 million project. For information on donating, see the Food Bank's website or call 302-294-0185.

Need for food at an all-time high in Delaware

Although many pandemic-era assistance programs have ended, the number of people having difficulty affording food keeps increasing.

In fiscal year 2019, the Food Bank distributed more than 8.6 million pounds of food from its Newark and Milford locations. In fiscal year 2022, that number jumped to about 16.5 million pounds.

The new building will provide space to store and distribute an estimated 9.7 million additional pounds. That includes 3.7 million more pounds of fresh foods with the new refrigerated space.

While donations from community food drives remain strong, items provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture have decreased with an end to extra assistance during the pandemic. So the Food Bank has to buy more.

“We purchased more food in the past year than at any point in the history of our organization,” said Chad Robinson, the Food Bank’s director of external affairs. “The need is significantly higher than before the pandemic.”

The demand is fueled by: the population increase, the end of extra SNAP assistance (formerly food stamps) that had been given during the pandemic, and inflation that’s the highest in decades, said Food Bank communications director Kim Turner.

More:Inflation is crushing Delawareans: Here's how are your neighbors cope

The nonprofit distributes some items at its centers in Glasgow and Milford, but mostly through a network of partners including state service centers, community food pantries, churches and other organizations.

The Food Bank also still holds monthly drive-thru distributions in each county that served thousands during the pandemic, but those large-scale events are scheduled to end in June.

More:4,000 families served at drive-thru food pantries after food assistance drops

In addition to food storage, plans include garden, café, job training

The warehouse will have nine loading bays and storage space two stories tall for fresh and nonperishable foods, with refrigerator and freezer cases, but the new facility will meet a variety of other needs.

“We do more than provide food,” said Kanefsky. “We provide hope for a better tomorrow. This building will allow us to … help our neighbors find long-term economic stability through job skills training, financial coaching and more.”

The property will include:

What's going to happen to the current Milford Food Bank facility? It's already been sold, and the nonprofit is renting it until the new building is finished.

Reporter Ben Mace covers real estate and development news. Reach him at [email protected].