Sunday, February 23, the Hillsborough Round Up switches to PORCH Hillsborough’s Food for Families program. In 2020, your donations will provide monthly deliveries of fresh produce and dairy for 50 food-insecure families. Read here for more about PORCH Hillsborough.
PORCH Hillsborough is a grassroots, all-volunteer organization formed in 2011 to provide food for the food pantry at Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM). Nancy Grebenkemper and Claire Millar started PORCH when they recognized that many people in the community were impacted by the recession and were at risk for hunger.
The organization, which is modeled after PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro, hosts monthly neighborhood food drives. The Hillsborough community has fervently embraced the work of PORCH Hillsborough and helped to grow it from 3 to 30 neighborhoods, and monthly food donations from $400 to $10,500.
Elizabeth Dicker joined PORCH Hillsborough as a co-director with Grebenkemper after being a volunteer in PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Under their leadership and with growing support from neighborhoods and local businesses, PORCH Hillsborough added two hunger-relief programs:
In 2016, PORCH Hillsborough started a snack program for Orange County Schools called Food for Schools. Local businesses sponsor the program, which provides healthy snacks to students who may be hungry during the school day or need supplemental food sent home over weekends and holidays. The program has grown to provide snacks for the school pantries at all 13 public schools in Orange County Schools plus at Headstart.
In 2018, PORCH Hillsborough, in partnership with Weaver Street Market, started the Food for Families program. School social workers identify the families most in need for food. The families receive monthly deliveries of boxes of fresh produce, including potatoes, onions, apples, oranges, peppers, bananas, kale, lettuce, tomatoes, and garlic, and a dozen local eggs and a block of Cabot cheese. Your round up funds are used to purchase this fresh food at cost.
Thank you, Weaver Street Market shoppers and owners! Your Round Up donations are helping PORCH Hillsborough grow its Food for Families program from serving 25 families at one school in 2017, to serving 50 families at three schools in 2020.