By Tiz Giordano, Weaver Street Market Customer Service Staff, Carrboro; this post is an updated version of a post from 2017
Hello, Weaver Street Family!
Recently, I had the honor of meeting several recipients of the PORCH food assistance programs. I wanted you wonderful folks to get to know some of the families you are supporting with your generous donations and to understand a little more about how necessary PORCH’s work is to our community.
About PORCH
PORCH serves a diverse population of families living under the national poverty line, which in 2017 was just $24,250 for a family of four. Most of these families are referred to PORCH through social workers in our public school systems. They identify school children who are the MOST at risk of hunger and place them into PORCH’s helping hands.
Because of the incredible support of Weaver Street Market customers during our previous campaigns, PORCH has been able to go from serving 270 families to 400, quite a jump! These programs sustain over 700 adults and 1050 children. With an estimated 2,653 school-aged children facing hunger last year in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, PORCH’s wonderful work is needed now more than ever.
PORCH Serves Refugee Families
So who are you helping? Our current campaign serves many refugee families from Burma as well as other local families. Fleeing violent religious persecution from their government, the luckiest refugee families get placed with a resettlement agency, are put on a plane, and are given a one-time lump sum of $1,000 to pay for food, housing, and furnishings in their new country. Adult members of the household are expected to become self-sufficient within 90 days and to start paying back the resettlement airfare within six months.
Mai Mai has been in the US for four years. She arrived with her four-year old son and gave the resettlement agency the Carrboro address of a woman who had worked with her at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Malaysia. Her first experience with PORCH was going to the free clothing exchange for warmer clothing for her son, who was so used to tropical heat that he was shivering even in our mild temperatures. Within a year she was receiving groceries and donating her skills as a translator to help PORCH better serve her community. She loves the quality of the produce she gets every month: “The vegetables we get from PORCH are like what we’d get back home; they are so precious to us. And the fruit we get from Weaver Street is the best fruit, just to get an apple fresh is worth standing in line.” Her husband, now a US citizen, works as a temp for UNC. He makes $10.15 an hour, with no holiday pay, and no hours for one month of the year. These are the times the family needs food the most. “PORCH was there for me during my hardest times, when my husband wasn’t working, while I recovered from post-partum depression…they are all Mother Teresas. Not only do they make it possible to feed my children, they gave us the best jackets ever, and books, and emotionally held me up…they are so warm, just coming here (every month) is a healing process.”
PORCH serves long-time residents
I also had the chance to talk to some of the PORCH recipients who are not refugees:
Karen, a nurse who works for a young mother with two autistic sons, donates her time to come pick up the groceries while the mom works. “I am just really tickled (the family) is eating better. When I got there, they used to eat a lot of ramen noodles.” One of the boys is a type 1 diabetic, and through better eating habits (he now loves salads!) his blood sugar is much better regulated.
Maria, a PORCH recipient for three years now, is a disabled mother with seven school-aged foster children. She told me that PORCH has changed her life and her children’s lives. She truly believed the affordable, processed food she used to eat and feed her children was poisoning her family. Since starting with PORCH, she has lost 211 pounds, and one of her middle school children has lost 50. “I feel like this food is making me a better parent, and helping me raise happier, healthier children. When these new kids come into our family they have terrible eating habits. Now they love carrots, green peppers. Our main meal once a week is just a big salad!”
Her message to PORCH donors was this: “I just want to shout to the moon and back that this program is helping in so many ways. Thank you, thank you for the sacrifice you have made to be a blessing to our families, allowing our children to be happy and healthy, and allowing us to be the effective parents we were meant to be.”
What a beautiful sentiment! And before I go, I want to thank you, our Weaver Street Market Family, on behalf of PORCH (and Mai Mai, Karen, and Maria) for helping us take a bite out of hunger in Orange County. PORCH has goals to expand their reach with the success of this and future campaigns. Let’s show them how much we care by exceeding our goal of $90,000 and help them lead more local families out of food insecurity. Neighbors helping neighbors—THAT is what makes our community great!