Overview

PORCH LogoPORCH is an all-volunteer, grassroots hunger relief organization aimed toward providing emergency support to food-insecure people in communities along the eastern United States. 

The organization has grown into a replicate model of monthly neighborhood food drives to support local pantries. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, PORCH has continued to organize monthly neighborhood food drives, but food sorts have been canceled in many communities.

History

PORCH was founded in 2010 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina after Debbie Horwitz, Christine Cotton and Susan Romaine realized at a sports banquet that their children were playing with children who were facing food insecurity. The trio started out by asking families in the Chapel Hill area to leave canned food on their porches to be collected and delivered to food banks, and soon formal communities were created. 

Since the inception of PORCH, the organization has spread to 24 communities in three states including North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina.

In 2021, PORCH hired Sarah Dudzic as its first executive director.

Programming

The flagship Chapel Hill-Carrboro PORCH community hosts events such as Food For Families, where fresh foods like fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and chicken are provided to at-risk families. PORCH also hosts programs such as: 

• Food for Pantries, which delivers canned goods and other non-perishable items to different local food pantries. 

• Food for Thought, which creates more public awareness about the prevalence of food insecurity through monthly newsletters, social media, speaking engagements, fact sheets and a video series posted on the PORCH website.

• PORCH Cooks Nutrition Program, which provides nutritional information and easy-to-prepare recipes to families enrolled in its Food for Families program as well as scheduled cooking demonstrations and food tastings.

As of 2019, the organization has expanded its programming to include literacy, personal finance and early education efforts, including partnering with other organizations to provide access to resources like English as a second language courses to those in need. 

Photo collage from PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro