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chapelhill.porchcommunities.org |
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PORCH Views – October 2022 |
Hello!
Welcome to another edition of PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s quarterly newsletter, helping you stay up to date on everything happening within our organization.
Some of the most recent headlines:
- Between July and September, you – the residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro – donated approximately $46,000 worth of non-perishable food. Over the summer, we surpassed the $5 million mark – meaning PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro has provided more than $5 million in hunger relief to our community since we were founded in 2010. Thank you for your extraordinary efforts! All 2022-2023 PORCH dates can be found on our website. Can you pitch in during the next monthly collection?
– In September, we distributed food to 503 families (2,159 individuals, including 1,253 kids) in our fresh Food for Families program. Each family received 40 pounds of fresh produce, 2 dozen eggs, milk, a bag of non-perishable food, melons from Farmer Foodshare, a Transplanting Traditions produce bag for participants from the refugee community, menstrual products from Diaper Bank NC, and $60 grocery gift cards. An additional 141 bags of non-perishable goods were shared with 10 local food pantries.
- We are currently seeking Neighborhood Coordinators in various neighborhoods, including Cates Farm. Do you know of anyone who can help fill this role? This is a great leadership opportunity for students! Prospective NCs can reach out to us at chc@porchcommunities.org. You can pass along the link to our Neighborhood Coordinator information page, which gets into the nuts and bolts of what NCs do; it includes this very handy video.
- Our Food for Thought advocacy program is back! It takes less than five minutes to write and mail a postcard, and you can do this from the comfort of your home. The message on the postcard changes each month depending on current events or pieces of legislation; it will be sent to one, two, or three elected officials. We encourage you to participate often! Let our legislators know we are paying attention and insist they enact policies that prioritize our most vulnerable neighbors. Get more information on our Food for Thought page. If you would like to receive packets with postcards, scripted messages, stamps, and mailing labels, email Kathy Hohneker.
- Through PORCH Cooks, we offer recipes and nutrition information to our families each month. In September, we provided a stuffed bell pepper recipe. In October, we highlighted a pizza recipe as well as a chili recipe. We want families to utilize all the fresh produce we provide. Recipes are key to that endeavor, and they're a fun way to engage children in the cooking process and create family conversations around healthy eating habits. We work with a dietitian, Katie Clarke, who helps create professional materials for us to share every month with our program participants. With accessibility in mind, we also translate them to Spanish.
- We love our community partners who are making big things happen for the families we serve. Thanks to our partnership with Diaper Bank, we are including period products in bags for families each month. Book Harvest helps us to distribute free children’s books. Learn more about our partners on our website.
Read on for more exciting updates. And check our blog regularly to learn the latest developments. Thank you, as always, for being part of the PORCH community!
Best,
The PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro Team
P.S. Our thanks to volunteer photographer Tom Simon for capturing many of the images in this newsletter!
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Keeping Minds and Bodies Nourished
At the end of August, social workers from all schools in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system each picked up $500 worth of snacks through our Food for Schools program. The snacks include apples, protein and granola bars, cheese crackers, and other non-perishables – so that students can keep their bodies and minds nourished, eliminating distraction due to hunger.
Many of the social workers commented that the need for the snacks was already apparent during the first couple of days of the 2022-2023 school year. Pictured below are Chapel Hill High social worker Teresa Pitts; Estes Hills Elementary social worker Betsy Booth; Northside Elementary social worker Sarah Litzinger; Janet Cherry, the district’s mental health and wellness director; and Chapel Hill High social worker Linda Martinez-Cervantes. Our generous 2022 Food for Schools sponsors make this vital program possible.
Members of Chapel Hill High School’s PORCH club helped sort the products so that the pick-up process would run efficiently. Another $500 worth of snacks will go to each school in January. Read more about Food for Schools.
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The Return of Round Up
Weaver Street Market’s Round Up fundraising campaign for PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro kicks off Nov. 1 and runs through Jan. 31. Every penny rounded up from purchases made at the Carrboro and Southern Village locations will go toward funding fresh produce for our Food for Families program.
Weaver Street Market has raised $350,000 for PORCH over the past seven years thanks to Round Up! Happy shopping!
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Meet a PORCH Team Member
“Please come and help us; you will be so happy. You will give a little and receive a lot.” Those are wise words for anyone thinking about getting involved with PORCH from one of our Spanish interpreters, Lucky Reumann. Learn more about her by reading this feature story on our blog.
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PORCH Pups
A couple of Neighborhood Coordinators brought their dogs along as they delivered the non-perishable food they had collected from neighbors. They were so adorable – we had to get pictures.
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Pitch In to Help PORCH Provide Hunger Relief
We recently received this note from a Food for Families participant: “PORCH means I can provide healthy meals to my family without worrying whether I have enough money to feed myself."
Our vision is that each person in our Chapel Hill-Carrboro community will have access to sufficient nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active, productive, and healthy lifestyle. But the increased cost of living – including at-home food costs rising by more than 10 percent – is making it more challenging for families in Chapel Hill and Carrboro to put food on the table each and every day.
We provide fresh and non-perishable food to an average of 2,150 individuals each month, which includes more than 1,250 children. Plus, the grocery store gift cards that we distribute offer the dignity of choice. And we support 13 local food pantries by dropping off non-perishable goods each month.
Thank you to our volunteers, donors, and partners who make this work possible! Together, we truly make a difference.
Can you make a gift today to help us combat hunger in our community? A $5 gift provides milk and eggs for one family; $25 provides chicken, milk, and eggs for two families; $50 provides a 10-day supply of fresh food to one family; $300 sponsors a family for six months; and $600 sponsors a family for a year.
Go to our donate page to make your gift. Click on “recurring donation” if you wish to become a PORCH monthly sustainer. You can also mail a check payable to PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro to P.O. Box 16363, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-6363.
Don’t forget to claim any matching funds from your employer. This can double your impact!
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PO Box 16363
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
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