September is Hunger Action Month. How can you act? Along with helping get departing vacationers’ surplus food from their rentals to local pantries, here’s another way you can help — start a PORCH for Pantries program in your community!
PORCH Communities is a nonprofit that connects neighbors to fight local hunger. Each month, volunteers collect food donations from porches and deliver them directly to local pantries. It’s that simple. You and your neighbors organize a monthly neighborhood food drive to supply non-perishable goods to local food pantries and families in need.
The best thing about the model is it’s simple and flexible, which means volunteers commit as much or as little time as they have available. It’s very easy to start a PORCH chapter, and with the help of your neighbors, you can make a real difference in your town or region.
Locally, there’s a chapter in Seminole. You can add one anywhere. Beach communities could include targeting vacationers in their donation and pickup model.
PORCH started in 2010 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Since then, it’s grown into a repeatable model of monthly neighborhood food drives and fresh produce distribution supplying food pantries, schools, and community programs across the country. It now has a volunteer network of more than 55 chapters in 16 states and has contributed more than $15 million dollars in hunger relief.
What a great way to get to know your neighbors, reduce waste and donate food! Wouldn’t you like to help?