FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 16, 2006

CONTACT: Shanna Yetman Maryland Food Bank 410-737-8282 ext. 230 yetman@mdfoodbank.org

NEW BOARD MEMBERS BRING POLITICAL SAVVY AND STRATEGIC PLANNING TO THE MARYLAND FOOD BANK The Maryland Food Bank Welcomes House Delegate Steven J. DeBoy Sr. and CareFirsts Rita Costello
(Baltimore, MD)The Maryland Food Bank is pleased to welcome House Delegate Steven J. DeBoy Sr. and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShields Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing Rita A. Costello to its board. Delegate DeBoy brings enthusiasm to his work with the food bank. He was instrumental in the Maryland Food Bank getting State Bond funding for our new facility, comments Bill Ewing, Executive Director of the Maryland Food Bank. Rita, on the other hand, was on the Board of Directors for the House of Ruth and I have been impressed by her commitment to the cause of alleviating hunger within the community. Delegate Steven J. DeBoy, Sr. represents both Baltimore and Howard Counties and has served on the Appropriations Committee since his election in 2003. Before pursuing a full-time career in politics, he served as a Special Investigator for the Howard County Police Department and served on both the Howard County and Catonsville Chambers of Commerce. In addition to being an advocate for the food bank, he also supported education by serving on the Southwest Area Educational Advisory Council to the Board of Education in Baltimore County. -more-

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Rita Costello serves as Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of Maryland. She manages all of product development and is instrumental in developing CareFirsts strategic plan. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for the House of Ruth for ten years (three of which she was president), Ms. Costello has advocated for education by serving on the Baltimore County Public Schools Education Foundation and the Towson University Outreach and Partnership Board. Her interests have led her to serve on the Governors Task Force to Conquer Cancer in Maryland and the Johns Hopkins Cancer Center Hemapheresis Executive Advisory Board. The Maryland Food Bank supplies food to hungry Marylanders by gathering excess and donated grocery products, and then distributing them to charitable food providers. The Maryland Food Bank has facilities in Baltimore and Salisbury comprising nearly 107,000 square feet of warehouse, refrigerator and freezer space. The Food Bank, now in its 26th year of operation, distributes up to 12 million pounds of food annually through its warehouses and a statewide assistance network of food banks in Allegheny, Washington, Howard, Anne Arundel, and Southern Maryland to more than 900 food providers. The Maryland Food Bank is a Certified Affiliate of Americas Second Harvest, the National Food Bank Network, and a recently honored recipient of the MD Association of Nonprofit Organizations Award for Standards for Excellence in ethics and accountability in business. ###