For December 2020, we are focusing our Food for Thought on COVID-19 relief efforts. Click here to find out how to contact our two US Senators and our Congressional representative, and for helpful suggested scripts to use for phone calls or written communications!
New Food for Thought Action
PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro Hiring for Executive Director Position
Executive Director Position Description
Organization
PORCH CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO (CHC) is a volunteer led, grassroots, hunger relief organization providing food security to families in need in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. PORCH collects food and cash donations through monthly neighborhood food drives, and then distributes food to hundreds of at-risk individuals in our community. The three founders of PORCH, Debbie Horwitz, Susan Romaine, and Christine Cotton, are good friends who learned that families in their children’s school were going hungry after the economic downturn. In 2010 they took action, asking a few friends and neighbors to donate canned goods to provide to those in need. Over a 10-year period, PORCH has grown from collecting canned goods from a few neighbors to collecting food and cash donations monthly from over 160 local neighborhoods, delivering over the decade nearly $3 million in hunger relief. PORCH runs three hunger relief programs. Food for Pantries provides nonperishable food to 15 local food pantries. Food for Schools provides healthy snacks to all 20 schools and three after-school programs in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Food for Families provides an abundance of healthy, fresh food monthly to local families with children and is currently serving 485 food-insecure families with children in the public schools (2125 individuals, 1250 children). Food for Families clients are 45% Latinx, 16% African American, and 31% refugees (542 refugees from Burma, 54 refugees from the Congo, and 65 refugees from Syria).
Primary Function
The Executive Director, reporting to the Board of Directors, will have primary responsibility for managing the organization’s day-to-day activities and operations and will work closely with the Board of Directors to develop strategy and to ensure the organization’s goals and mission are achieved. The Executive Director is the public face of PORCH and is responsible for building awareness of PORCH in the communities which PORCH serves and is responsible for the management of the organization, fundraising and new business development strategy.
KEY ROLES (ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES)
Leadership and Community Engagement
Works with board and staff to ensure that the mission is fulfilled through programs, strategic planning and community outreach.
- Responsible for implementation of PORCH’s programs that carry out the organization’s mission.
- Responsible, along with the board, for strategic planning to ensure that PORCH can successfully fulfill its mission into the future.
- Responsible for the enhancement of PORCH’s image by being active and visible in the community and by working closely with other professional, civic and private organizations and agencies.
Resource Development and Management
- Responsible, along with the board, for fundraising and developing other revenues necessary to support PORCH’s mission.
- Responsible for the fiscal integrity of PORCH, to include submission to the Board of a proposed annual budget and monthly financial statements, which accurately reflect the financial condition of the organization.
- Responsible for fiscal management that generally anticipates operating within the approved budget, ensures maximum resource utilization, and maintenance of the organization in a positive financial position.
Operational Management
Oversees and implements appropriate resources to ensure that the operations of the organization are appropriate and carried out in support of the mission and to the satisfaction of the Board.
- Responsible for the effective administration of PORCH programs, including but not limited to Food For Pantries, Food For Families and Food For Schools.
- Responsible for implementing formal policies promoting diversity, inclusion and equity throughout the entire organization.
- Responsible for the hiring and retention of competent, qualified staff.
Board Relations
- Support governance of the board to identify, retain, and develop board members.
- Maintain regular communications with the board of directors and provide the board with the necessary reports, support, counsel and information necessary for effective board governance.
EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE:
Required:
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university; applicants without a degree who have comparable nonprofit leadership will be considered
- Three to five years of experience in a non-profit leadership position where he/she/they managed a team
- Proven leadership skills, including negotiation, problem solving, decision making and delegation
- Experience in working with diverse communities
- Demonstrated success in fundraising
- Successful track record in nonprofit fiscal management
- Experience with creation of operating budgets and managing expenses
- Excellence in organizational management and time management with the ability to recruit, coach and manage full and part-time staff
- Strong written and verbal communication skills; a persuasive and passionate communicator with excellent interpersonal skills
- Action-oriented, entrepreneurial, self-directed, adaptable, and with an innovative approach to leveraging the power of communities
- Personal values consistent with PORCH’s mission
Preferred:
- Experience with hunger relief and/or social services agencies
- Graduate degree in a field that supports and advances the work
- Demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equality, and inclusion internally and externally.
SALARY:
- Compensation commensurate with experience with a competitive benefits package
HOW TO APPLY:
For consideration please submit a cover letter detailing how your experience aligns with the job qualifications and an updated resume, curriculum vitae and/or bio to Steve Spokane at sspokane@gmail.com.
Untitled_5
Dear PORCH Community,
We wanted to reach out to affirm our solidarity as a community, and to express our shared anguish over the horrific killing of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and too many others, as well as the much longer history of racial injustice in our country.
The devastating effects of systemic racism are reflected all around us. The disparity between our black and brown brothers and sisters and our white ones is stark – in income and employment figures, access to quality education, provision of healthcare, access to healthy food, as well as how communities are policed.
We at PORCH stand with all people of conscience against racism. We believe that our entire community is diminished when any one of us is treated as “less than” because of the color of their skin. And we believe it is our responsibility to bear witness to, and work to put a stop to racist actions and systems, no matter who is perpetrating them.
It is time to reflect on how we all might better listen and take effective action in our own communities, organizations, and businesses. PORCH is committed to:
- Continuing our efforts to diversify the voices on our Board, staff, and volunteer corps
- Engaging more deeply with our clients and all stakeholders to listen and ensure we are hearing and addressing their needs
- Advocating for policies righting the systemic wrongs that perpetuate the inequities that are sources of hunger and food insecurity
PORCH was founded on the idea of neighbors helping neighbors, regardless of race, or religion, or age, or gender, or any other way some would choose to divide us. We are committed to working toward a just and compassionate world, where the principle that all people are created equal is not simply an ideal, but a lived reality.
With love, determination, and solidarity, The PORCH Team
New PORCH Partnership to Keep our Community Fed
Just over a month ago Jennifer Woods, Outreach Coordinator for the Durham Branch of the Foodbank of Eastern and Central North Carolina, realized that she had a problem. Traditional weekly food distributions at Public Housing sites in Chapel Hill were going to be impossible to continue with all of the COVID-19 restrictions being put into place. Without those weekly food distributions, a lot of people in Chapel Hill would be going hungry.
Unwilling to let that happen, Jennifer reached out to Faith Brodie, Public Housing Director for the Town of Chapel Hill and asked her “what do you think the possibility is of us still having the distributions but having them as drive-through distributions where people could come have a box of food placed in their trunk?” Brodie thought the idea was a good one, but the logistics of setting up and staffing a drive-through delivery system had to be worked through. Enter PORCH.
[Read more…]
Dear PORCH Community,
When trouble hits, we pull together. It’s one of the things you can count on in our community. We have gotten so many offers of help to mitigate the effects of Coronavirus crisis, we wanted to have a central location where you can find information on how best to contribute at this time:
CASH DONATIONS
PORCH is actively serving families with children in our community. Over 460 families enrolled in our Food for Families program are receiving $50 Food Lion gift cards this week. To support this effort, please make an online donation here. PORCH leaders and volunteers are also working directly with the local schools to help distribute free meals during the school closures. This week, PORCH volunteers are staffing five sites distributing grab-n-go lunches with snacks to hundreds of local families.
In addition, PORCH is providing hundreds of $25 Food Lion gift cards to each of the food pantries listed below, who are working on the front lines of hunger relief during the Coronavirus crisis. To contribute toward this effort, make an online donation here.
NONPERISHABLE FOOD DONATIONS
While PORCH is serving families with children in our community, the following food pantries can use your help providing for others in need. If you are out grocery shopping, please consider picking up an extra bag of food and delivering it directly to:
Hillsborough Commons
113 Mayo Street, Hillsborough
Phone: 919-245-2800
Hours Open: 8 am to 5 pm
Interfaith Council for Social Service (IFC)
100 W. Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill
Hours Open: 9 am-5 pm
Note: Donors should ring the doorbell at the basement door, and someone will come down to get the food. You can also try to call when you are near IFC (919-929-6380, press 0). IFC staff or volunteers will do their best to meet you outside. Any type of canned meat is a priority need, but they will put it all to good use!
Orange Congregations In Mission (OCIM)
300 Millstone Drive, Hillsborough
Hours Open: 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.
Note: Any change in schedule will be noted on voicemail at (919) 732-6194, ext. 12.
Rogers Road Community Center
101 Edgar Street, Chapel Hill
Hours Open: 10 am to 3 pm on Monday through Friday, 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday.
Southern Human Services Center
2501 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill
Phone: 919-245-2800
Hours Open: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Thank you again for such an outpouring of support during this trying time. We will continue to keep you updated on PORCH’s efforts to support our hunger relief infrastructure and strengthen the safety net for neighbors who are most vulnerable during the Coronavirus crisis.
– The PORCH Team
Due to COVID-19, PORCH cancels all group activities in March.
As the situation with COVID-19 (coronavirus) continues to develop, we wanted to update you on our programs and services:
All of PORCH’s group activities in March, including our fresh food deliveries to families in our fresh food program are canceled.
Estamos cancelando todas las actividades grupales de PORCH en marzo, incluyendo nuestras entregas de alimentos frescos a las familias en nuestro programa de alimentos frescos.
We are canceling all of PORCH’s group activities in March. This means our neighborhood food drives, food sort and pantry deliveries staged from St Thomas More, produce packing at Extraordinary Ventures and Redeye, and fresh food deliveries at Carrboro and Morris Grove Elementary Schools and Homestead Aquatic Center. As agonizing as this decision was to cancel activities, it is our way of being a part of the social distancing solution to COVID-19.
We appreciate your continued support through cash donations. We will be mailing a $50 Food Lion gift card to each of the 463 families we serve through our Food for Families program. If you would like to support this effort (in lieu of our fresh food deliveries), please make an online donation here. Or, mail a check payable to PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro to:
PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro
PO Box 16363
Chapel Hill, NC 27516-6363
While PORCH is actively serving families with children in our community, these pantries can use your help providing for others. If you are out grocery shopping, pick up an extra bag and deliver directly to:
Rogers Road Community Center
101 Edgar Street, Chapel Hill
Accepting donations M – F from 10 am – 3 pm and Sat from 10 am – 5 pm
Orange Congregations In Mission (OCIM)
300 Millstone Drive, Hillsborough
Accepting donations M – F from 9:00 am — 4:30 pm. Any change in schedule will be noted on voicemail at (919) 732-6194, ext. 12.
Interfaith Council for Social Service (IFC)100 W. Rosemary Street, Chapel HillAccepting donations M — F from 9 am — 5 pm
We will keep in touch with any new developments and our plan of action for April. In the meantime, keep calm and carry on.
Together in service,
Christine, Debbie, and Susan
Laura Malinchock, Master of Logistics:
Drivers Needed!
Laura Malinchock and her son were rummaging through the garage one day, when he picked up a discarded backpack. “My friend at school doesn’t have one,” he said. “We should give it to him.”
It was a wake-up call for Laura, who had moved with her family from Yardley, a suburban town in Pennsylvania, where families, as far they knew, had everything they needed. Proud of her son for realizing that there were children who weren’t equipped even basically for school, she began to view her new community differently.
“In Yardley,” she tells me, “I’d volunteered in my children’s school, but we were kind of in a bubble. Across the river was Trenton, New Jersey, and we never really considered the far greater needs of families there.”
Laura grew up in a military family, so she was used to being moved around quite a bit. But her grandfather was from Wilmington, North Carolina, where she still has relatives, and part of her heritage is the tradition of crossing community lines.
[Read more…]
Gary Richards, Man with a Mission
Gary Richards and Karen Rodin letting us know how our voices can be heard.
Gary Richards tells me he is writing a novel about some escapades among people who influenced the Civil War. He began it about ten years ago, researching it thoroughly and thinking about it ever since. “But,” he warns me, “you can’t reveal the plot.” I promise, so you will not hear about the exciting, action-packed adventure here. You will have to wait for the book. Or the movie.
We meet at the political advocacy table outside the PORCH sort on Monday, where he has been filling in for Kathleen Shapley-Quinn. He’s the PORCH neighborhood coordinator for the Greenbridge Condominiums between Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and has been since he and his wife Geraldine, who is the president of Chapel Hill NOW, moved from Oswego, New York five years ago. At first, they came south for half a year (they have children and grandchildren hereabouts), then decided that shoveling snow all winter was something he could do without. He’s retired from professional work now, but not from advocacy…he fills his days with it, and we are the better for his energy.
In Oswego, he had been cooking for the soup kitchen, so he began volunteering at TABLE, then coming to PORCH, which he likes for its dedicated and nearly entirely volunteer engine. “Those three ladies [Christine, Debbie and Susan] are my heroes!” he says. “I’d nominate them for the Peace Prize if I could.”
His activism began early in his college days at Buffalo. “I’d see posters for films on the NLF [National Liberation Front], mistakenly assuming they were about the NFL,” he laughs. It was the Vietnam era, so the transposition of initials made quite a difference, as he soon found out. “Hey, I thought. Here I am a middle-class white guy. What does all this mean to me?” It was an awakening to the many injustices in the country and world that led him to declare himself a pacifist.
[Read more…]