November 2023: The Latest from PORCH

• Matt Mckinney delivered a trunk full of food collected by the families at Duke School during their fall festival food drive! Food drives like these help us fill bags for our growing number of Food for Family participants. If your workplace or community organization wants to host a food drive for PORCH, it’s pretty easy! Find a list of our most needed items, a promotional flyer, and some instructions on our website. Use a designated tub/bin/basket to set up your food drive collection site. Choose a high- traffic location, whether that’s your front porch, office, neighborhood clubhouse, or gym. Learn more: chapelhill.porchcommunities.org/monthly-food-drive

• Some awesome UNC students participated in Newman Fall Service Day through the Newman Catholic Student Center. They collected over 45 bags of food for PORCH – rice, canned meats, breakfast items, pasta, pasta sauce, and more! Many thanks to the student coordinators. We look forward to partnering again soon!

• A longtime resident of Spring Valley in Carrboro, Mary Kent Hill became a Neighborhood Coordinator during PORCH’s earliest days. But this summer brought a new injection of energy. Mary Kent now has a partner in neighbor Amy Stern. The women alternate months, dividing the work. “Just the idea of helping others – and neighbors helping neighbors – is really appealing to me,” Amy says. “I just wanted to help in some local way. PORCH is really important in our community.” Learn more about their partnership on our blog. 

• In October, we had a record 585 families enrolled in our program – more than 2,400 individuals with more than 1,300 of those being children.We added 39 families in October alone – the highest increase in our history!  Our sort and pack volunteers packed a total of 488 non-perishable bags that our distribution volunteers loaded into our participants’ cars, along with a gallon of milk, 2 dozen eggs, a beautiful box of fresh fruits and vegetables, a bag of Transplanting Traditions Community Farm produce for our refugee families from Burma, and a grocery store gift card. Special thanks to our pantry delivery volunteers for helping deliver 115 bags of non-perishable items to 9 of our Food For Pantries partners!

• Last month, Mair Augustino Famet from Carolina Week joined us during our Sunday sort to shine a spotlight on our hunger relief efforts.

• Through PORCH Cooks, our organization provides recipes and nutrition information each month to the 585 families in Chapel Hill and Carrboro who are enrolled in our Food for Families program. This is made possible by volunteer Katie Clarke. In October, she presented a recipe for a delicious pear cake. For the better part of a decade, Katie has developed simple, approachable recipes for us to share, along with information about cooking techniques and food storage. Learn more about Katie on our blog.