Weaver Street Market supports community partners that share our vision of providing healthy food to those in need. Our community partners expanded their programs substantially during the pandemic to serve the record number of families at risk for food-insecurity. The need for hunger relief continues to grow as food inflation rises.
Rounding Up to Reduce Hunger
Our Community Food Partners are the recipients of our Round Up program. Shoppers are offered the opportunity to “round up” their bill at the register or to purchase Round Up tokens when shopping online. Shoppers can also donate cash of any amount at the register. Recipients rotate throughout the year and differ by store—with stores rounding up for organizations that support the neighborhoods in which the stores are located.
All donations to our community partners are 100% for food. Weaver Street leverages its buying power to help the organizations purchase the donated food at greatly reduced costs.
Since 2015, shoppers have donated over $1.88 million for food to feed the hungry.
WSM’s Community Food Partners:
A Place at the Table
Your Round Up donations for A Place at the Table provide healthy meals for those who cannot pay for their meal. Each $10 donated pays for one meal. A Place at the Table is a non-profit pay-what-you-can café where everyone in the community, regardless of means, can come together to share a meal. The café, which is located in downtown Raleigh, serves breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday. The café features community-friendly dining both indoors and outdoors, and the menu features “feel good food” that’s culturally friendly, fresh, healthy, and fun. The café provides from 100 to 150 meals pay-what-you-can-meals daily for individuals who cannot afford to pay the full price of their meal, with 30 to 40 volunteering daily for their meal. Learn more about A Place at the Table.
Grow to Life
Grow to Life, a local, Black-led food justice organization, is one of our newest partners. Round up donations support the organization’s advocacy work for food and nutrition equity. in our communities. Grow to Life provides access to culturally recognizable nutrition and education for under-resourced community members. Donations from the first Grow to Life round up helped the organization source fresh produce for its complimentary, healthy, and nutritious food distributions throughout Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County. Grow to Life sources fresh produce from local Black farmers as much as possible. A core component and passion of Grow to Life’s programs is fostering relationships with local elementary, high school, and college students (our future leaders) from UNC and NCCU by providing service-learning opportunities. You can follow @growtolifeorg on lnstagram or email growtolifeorg@gmail.com to connect.
Inter-Faith Council for Social Services (IFC)
Your round up donations for Inter-Faith Council for Social Services provide fresh vegetables, fruit, and dairy for families shopping at IFC’s food pantry—Community Market. Community Market, located in the new IFC Commons facility, is a member-choice food pantry that allows members to shop for themselves and make food choices most appropriate for their families. Qualifying families receive approximately one week’s worth of groceries once a month. The pantry provides more than 1,500 bags of groceries each month to food-insecure individuals and families who live or work in Chapel Hill or Carrboro. IFC has been a trusted provider of social safety net services in our community for almost six decades. The organization offers crisis services for people experiencing poverty and homelessness, as well as voting outreach, leadership development, and social justice initiatives. Learn more about Inter-Faith Council.
Meals on Wheel Orange County (MOWOCNC)
Your Round Up donations for Meals on Wheels Orange County, NC (MOWOCNC) provide fresh fruit to accompany the hot nutritious meals provided Monday through Friday for seniors and disabled adults in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and rural Orange County who do not have access to, or the ability to prepare, healthy meals. Each meal includes milk, fresh fruit, and a homemade dessert. The volunteers who deliver the meals provide friendly check-in visits and help connect the recipients with needed services. Since 2019 MOWOCNC has increased its meal delivery by 39%, currently serving 343 individuals with growth expected to reach 400 by the end of the year. The organization relies on a volunteer staff of 400 to help with packing, deliveries, and check-in visits and calls. Learn more about Meals on Wheels Orange County, NC.
Neighborfood Express
Your Round Up donations at our Raleigh store provide fresh vegetables, fruit, and dairy for Neighborfood Express. Neighborfood Express delivers free weekly healthy groceries and supplies to families living in food insecure neighborhoods in Southeast and East Raleigh. Many of these residents lack both transportation and physical proximity to available food sources. Launched in November 2020, Neighborfood Express has delivered more than 136,000 pounds of food, along with more 12,000 free books for kids, 120 computers for kids, and over a 1,000 diaper packs. The organization has provided referrals for additional support services to 266 individuals. Neighborfood Express is a program of the Marcus Harris Foundation. Learn more about Neighborfood Express.
Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM)
Your Round Up donations for Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM) provide fresh vegetables, fruit, and dairy for OCIM’s food pantry and fresh fruit for the OCIM’s Meals on Wheels program. In 2021, more than 8,240 individuals (including 2,089 children) received food through the food pantry, which received 164,329 pounds in donated food. OCIM relies on volunteers to fill more than 80 volunteer slots each month to keep the pantry running. OCIM’s ministries include its Samaritan Relief (which includes the food pantry and financial aid), a Thrift Shop, and its Meals on Wheels program. Each weekday, 35 to 50 seniors in Hillsborough and parts of rural Orange County receive hot meals through OCIM’s MOW program. OCIM recently celebrated its 40th anniversary of serving families in need. Learn more about OCIM.
Orange County Schools (OCS)
Your Round Up donations for Orange County Schools provide bags of fresh vegetables, fruit, dairy, and non-perishables for students at risk for hunger over the winter and spring school breaks when they do not have access to free and reduced school meals. In 2022, Weaver Street partnered with OCS to provide more than 21 pallets of healthy food for 588 kids from six elementary schools—Central Elementary, Efland Cheeks Global, Grady A. Brown, Gravelly Hill, New Hope Elementary, and Pathways—as well as Partnership Academy and A.L. Stanback Middle School. Staff, volunteers, and parents sort the food, bag bulk items such as beans and rice, and help connect the food with the students’ parents. This year we added a round up campaign to stock up the school-wide food pantry with groceries for families with emergency food needs. Learn more about OCS.
PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Your Round Up donations help provide fresh for vegetables and fruit for PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s Food for Families program. Each month, more than 500 Food for Family recipients receive 35 to 40 pounds of food, including produce, eggs, milk, and chicken, along with non-perishables and $60 grocery gift cards. The gift cards allow families to choose and purchase needed and preferred foods, as well as household items not typically covered by SNAP or WIC. The non-perishable products are donated through monthly PORCH neighborhood food drives. In addition to sourcing produce from Weaver Street, PORCH sources food from other local suppliers, including Transplanting Traditions Community Farm, The Produce Box, Farmer Foodshare, and Cliff’s Corner Meat Market. In 2021, to meet the increased need for their services, PORCH provided a record amount of hunger relief—$823,874 in fresh food, non-perishable food, and grocery gift card support. Learn more about PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro.
PORCH Hillsborough
Your round up donations for PORCH Hillsborough helped this grassroot organization launch its Food for Families program. The program provides monthly boxes of food for 35 families at Central Elementary and Efland Cheeks Global. School social workers identify food-insecure families to participate in the program. PORCH Hillsborough and Weaver Street partner to provide fresh vegetables, fruit, and dairy for the food boxes. PORCH’s Food for Pantries program includes 30 PORCH neighborhoods and the Meadowlands Business Community, which host monthly food drives with more than 4,000 pounds of non-perishables collected each month. Two Hillsborough food pantries receive the donated non-perishables—the food pantry at Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM) and the food pantry at Orange Middle School. The Food for Families food boxes also include non-perishables collected through monthly neighborhood food drives. Learn more about PORCH Hillsborough.
PORCH Raleigh
This fall, PORCH Raleigh joins our round up program as a first-time recipient. Round up donations will provide fresh produce for the organization’s newly launched Food for Families program. Recipients of the Food for Families program receive boxes of fresh produce, dairy, and met as well as boxes of non-perishables collected through monthly PORCH neighborhood food drives. PORCH Raleigh is planning for strategic growth of the program in collaboration with NCPTA, Wake County Public Schools, and Wake County officials. Since 2013, PORCH Raleigh has provided food and resources for food insecure families served through multiple partner organizations in Wake County, including Backpack Buddies, school food pantries, and community pantries. Learn more about PORCH Raleigh.
Ship Community Outreach
Round up donations for our newest Raleigh community partner—Ship Community Outreach—provide fresh vegetables, fruit, and dairy for food insecure families shopping at the Galley Store. The Galley Store provides low-cost and free healthy food for families in Southeast Raleigh who have limited access to affordable healthy food. Founded in 2010, Ship Community Outreach serves downtown Raleigh and the surrounding communities with a focus on food insecurity, poverty alleviation, crime prevention, healthy living, employment readiness, life skills training, and human trafficking intervention. Ship Community Outreach recently moved to 2635 S. Saunders. The facility houses the Galley Store, Treasures Boutiques (low-cost upscale clothing), the Ship Yard (a free community gym), Transitional Employment Program, and Anti-trafficking Initiative. Learn more about Ship Community Outreach.
TABLE
Your Round Up for TABLE support TABLE’s summer meal program, which provides fresh produce and healthy non-perishable food for food-insecure children who do not have access to school meals over the summer break. With this community support, TABLE has been able to extend its summer program from 7 to 10 weeks and increase the number of children from 350 to a record breaking 760 kids. TABLE provides weekend backpack meals throughout the school year and expects to exceed 800 kids this fall. TABLE is continuing its new delivery model, which changed during the pandemic from delivering back-pack meals to kids at school to delivering the food directly to the homes of the children. This model allows the requires 42 volunteers to deliver the food each week, but the change has the added benefit of providing more food and including more perishable food, such as greens and berries. Learn more about TABLE.
Our Round Up schedule is set through July 2023. If you have suggestions about the Round Up campaign, please contact Brenda at brenda.c@weaverstreetmarket.coop.