Early Thursday morning, July 9, shoppers, owners, and co-op employees are invited to join us on the Carrboro lawn to help sort and pack 200 bags of food that will be delivered later that day to TABLE’s kids at summer school and camps. We’ll start the food sort at 7:30 am and work until we have 200 bags of food ready to deliver. Stop by for free coffee and to meet your neighbors as we prepare the bags of food.
The community food sort is an important piece of the Community Food Partnerships that Weaver Street started in January. Shoppers and owners donated $65,000 to purchase healthy food for PORCH and TABLE, and the food sort is an opportunity to follow-up on those donations as they go into action. If you cannot come on July 9, join us for a second sort on July 23, same time and place.
Food Deliveries Continue throughout the Summer Months
Last week, the co-op delivered the first food donated in May for TABLE’s Summer Backpack Program. Weaver Street shoppers and owners donated over $33,000 to provide healthy food for 2,800 backpacks. Each week throughout the summer, the co-op is delivering 8 pounds of food for each child. Employee volunteers meet each Wednesday afternoon to slice and bag the freshly baked WSM oat bread included in each bag, and we deliver fresh fruits and vegetables as well as non-perishables from our storage areas to TABLE’s office.
Volunteers also meet once a month to sort and box the produce Weaver Street Market has purchased with donations for PORCH’s Food for Families Program.
The $32,000 in donations for the PORCH “Bag of Produce” campaign will continue to provide fresh produce for 100 families for a total of 10 months. The donations have enabled PORCH to provide additional food for the families. Since our food deliveries started in March, PORCH has added two whole chickens for each family, and this month they also added a large bag of rice. And, this month each family received a bonus with their boxes of produce—a whole watermelon.
The next food campaign for the Community Food Partnership features two local food banks: Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM) in Hillsborough and Interfaith Council (IFC) in Carrboro-Chapel Hill. Watch for more information and opportunities to participate later this summer.