March 2022: The Latest from PORCH

• PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro founder and director, Debbie Horwitz, and PORCH interpreter, Blanca Schusterman, were interviewed by WCOM FM 103.5 FM radio host, Rodrigo Tossi. Rodrigo moved to the community six months ago from Santiago, Chile, and has WCOM’s first-ever Spanish language radio show on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. We were honored to be invited to talk about PORCH and the ways we provide hunger relief to our community. Gracias, Rodrigo! Learn more about Blanca – who has been volunteering with PORCH for more than 10 years and does incredible work for us as a Spanish translator and interpreter – by clicking here.

• An amazing group of high school students reached out to us this month to offer fresh produce, a part of their ongoing service projects in our community. They packed 35 boxes of fresh produce and eggs for refugee families and also provided 282 bags of local Pink Lady apples for us. Thank you, Bo, Yikuan, Yichen, and Jay! Check out food4change.org. 

• At the beginning of February, we asked our followers to show some love to PORCH by signing up to become monthly sustainers at whatever level they could – $5 per month, $10 per month, etc. The response has been overwhelming! In the past 28 days, we have exceeded our goal of attaining 28 new sustainers – nearly doubling that! And many of our new sustainers are donating for the first time. Thank you so much! Every dollar we receive makes a meaningful difference in our work to provide hundreds of Chapel Hill and Carrboro families with fresh and non-perishable food. PORCH is a small organization that makes a big impact, and we couldn’t do this without your support. 

• Martha Newport Realty Group recently hosted a food drive for PORCH – they are fantastic partners who also sponsor our Food For Schools Program! Thank you! Pictured here is Ellys Bishop with the food they collected.

• Chapel Hill – Carrboro NAACP donated KN95 masks that we put into our bags last month. Thanks so much!

• March 6 to 12 is National School Social Work Week! We want to give a shout out to the dedicated social workers in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools who work tirelessly to be there for all of their students and their families. We are grateful for their partnership as they refer families to PORCH’s fresh food program and manage the distribution of snacks from our Food for Schools program. They make a difference for so many in our community! Pictured above are Carlie Ewen and Brenda McNeely-Allen (who serves on PORCH’s board), social workers at Rashkis Elementary and East Chapel Hill High School.

• We are proud to announce that we have become an official community partner of the Diaper Bank of North Carolina! We distributed period products to 280 of our families last month. Thanks to Gerrie Richards and Virginia Carson for their part in making this happen. For more information, check out onthespotnc.org.

• Check out all of the flyers that were mailed to 500-plus households in Chapel Hill-Carrboro this month, along with a $75 grocery gift card! That’s a lot of resources in one envelope! Our thanks to longtime PORCH volunteers Bill and Diane Race for spending several hours, each and every month, stuffing envelopes. 

• A warm welcome to new sorting and packing volunteer Catherine. We’re glad to have you as part of our PORCH community!

• This month, the PORCH Clubs at Chapel Hill High and Carrboro High made some posters to hang and cards to hand out to our sort and bag shift volunteers to show our appreciation for their work. We are, indeed, so lucky to have them as part of our PORCH community! 🍀💚

• Let’s hear it for Genevieve and Isabelle. This mother-daughter team is unstoppable when it comes to sorting and packing for PORCH!