Meet Food for Schools Sponsor Erika Buchholtz of Erika and Co.

A resident of Southern Village and leading Realtor in Chapel Hill since 1996, Erika Buchholtz of Erika & Co. has been voted favorite Realtor in Chapel Hill Magazine for five consecutive years. She knows our area well and understands that many residents find it hard to meet their everyday needs. This is why she is a dedicated sponsor of PORCH’s Food for Schools (FFS) program in addition to volunteering as a Neighborhood Coordinator. 

FFS provides supplemental food to students in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools who are hungry and struggling to concentrate in the classroom. Through FFS, PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro provides each school with $1,000 worth of snacks in a school year – $500 at the beginning of the school year and $500 after the holidays. The snacks – cheese crackers, granola bars, applesauce, apples, protein bars, trail mix, fruit bars, and more – are purchased in bulk, brought to a central location, and sorted. Then, school social workers pick up the healthy snacks on a designated day each semester. To learn more, check out our recent feature on this program. 

Erika says that her guiding principle is that helping one person might not change the world, but it could change the world for one person. This spirit of giving runs in the family. Erika’s daughter Chloe, a student at Carrboro High School, has helped with the Southern Village PORCH collection for years. In 2020, she founded Acts of Kindness – Chapel Hill, a nonprofit that spreads random and organized acts of kindness.  

 “PORCH resonates with me so profoundly because I love the idea of neighbors helping neighbors,” Erika says. “The PORCH food collection drives are such a simple but powerful and effective method for local hunger relief. My family has shared the Southern Village Neighborhood Coordinator role with Lisa Beisser since 2015. Seeing my fellow neighbors give, month after month, in our neighborhood food drives always fills me with joy. … It is vital for locally-owned small businesses to support organizations doing good in our backyard because it can strengthen connection to community, build morale, and make a meaningful difference in the quality of life of our fellow residents.”

View our full list of FFS sponsors and learn more about becoming a sponsor.