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 TAKING THE LEAD IN SOUTHERN
DELAWARE
Charles and Warren Allen of Allen Foods, Inc. in
Seaford waited until their 70s to become involved with charitable
giving – but the wait seems to have been worth it. Since the early
1990s, the two brothers have contributed more than $6.5 million
toward regional causes that they care about. In doing so, the Allens
are setting a wonderful example for others from Southern Delaware,
and they were honored for their leadership by the Delaware Community
Foundation at a dinner on October 3, 2001.
Allen Family History
It was 1923 when Clarence Allen moved his wife and three
young sons four miles to a 58 acre farm in Seaford, Delaware to try his
hand at chicken farming. Their first “hatchery” consisted of 250 chicks,
and it quickly burned to the ground before the small business began to
grow.
Each day after school the Allen boys would spend up to
four hours placing eggs in hatching trays, for which they were paid five
cents per tray. In time, Charles and Warren became two of Seaford’s most
celebrated athletes – Charles earned a football scholarship to the
University of Delaware, while Warren became an all-Ivy League baseball
player at Princeton.
After WWII in 1945, the boys returned to Seaford to take
over their father’s business, which had grown to 70,000 chicks per-week
and four full-time employees. They have been there ever since – in fact,
corporate headquarters today is the old Allen family home, expanded.
Warren and his wife, Paula live a block away, and
Charles resides on the original family farm, once owned by their
grandfather. Two of their sons, Charles III (Chick) and Warren L. Allen,
Jr. (Ren) – along with their brother Jack and their nephew, John R.
Allen Jr. – now manage the fast-growing family business. Chick is the
company president.
Today, Allen Foods, Inc. produces 2.3 million chickens a
week and employs 2,500 people. Allen products are sold across the east
coast, as well as overseas. Over the past 75 years, tens of thousands of
people in Southern Delaware have worked for, supplied and purchased
Allen’s products – and now Charles and Warren are “giving back” to the
communities that helped make them successful.
Seven Years of Charity
The two brothers started in 1993 by establishing
charitable funds at the Delaware Community Foundation – now valued at
nearly $3 million – that will continue to give forever. They are also
leaving a substantial portion of their remaining estates to these funds,
from which their sons will make gifts for years to come.
In 1994, Charles Allen donated $1 million to establish
the University of Delaware’s state-of-the-art biotechnology lab for
poultry research, known as the Allen Laboratory. Warren has also made
generous donations to his alma mater, Princeton. Together last year,
Charles and Warren gave more than $1 million to Sussex County Senior
Services (CHEER) to create a multi-purpose activity center for
seniors in Georgetown.
And the list goes on -- $300,000 to create a Boys &
Girls Club in Seaford; $100,000 for the local Boy Scouts; gifts to the
Seaford Little League and Ross Mansion; and generous support for a new
local museum, as well as a thriving Soroptomist Club clothing exchange,
named for their mother, Nellie.
In addition, they created the “Nellie G. Allen Endowment
Fund,” which supports faculty enrichment at Salisbury High School, the
school some of their grandchildren attended. Each summer, they also
donate $12,000 in local scholarships to deserving students from Seaford
High School.
The Allens have made other gifts to Children’s Beach
House, Mission House, the Association of Retarded Citizens and United
Way. They have given to St. John’s United Methodist Church, among other
local churches, and to smaller causes too numerous to list. (In fact,
after once unknowingly purchasing farm acreage, a part of which included
a Methodist Church, Warren Allen returned the building and its land to
the parishioners, with his compliments.)
Taking the Lead
The Allens’ commitment to philanthropy is a beacon of
promise in Southern Delaware, where organized giving has yet to take
root. “We would like to say we’re leaders,” says Warren Allen, “but
nobody is following” – not yet.
Although healthy and very active, both Warren and
Charles have suffered the loss of their first wives, and now two of
Warren’s four children have predeceased him, the most recent, his son
Leland in August 2001 after the passing of a daughter, Linda, in 1996.
It’s time for us to give back – it makes us feel good to
make these gifts,” Warren says, “and it’s important that we support the
communities that supported our family over all these years.”
The Allens are especially pleased that the funds they
started with the DCF in 1993 have doubled in value over the last seven
years, as a result of the Foundation’s investment expertise. And they
like the support that the DCF gives them, whenever it is needed.
“I would say to anyone, get started now,” Warren
advises. “Start putting money aside into a fund at the Delaware
Community Foundation, so that when you are ready to start giving back
yourself, it will be there for you.”
With the Allens’ leadership in Southern Delaware,
perhaps that will happen. |
