A nutritional diet often becomes sidelined when families' primary concern is putting food on the table.
But over the past two weeks, Weaver Street Market has worked with one of its community partners, People Offering Relief for Chapel Hill Carrboro Homes, to provide fresh produce and eggs to low-income families.
PORCH began in 2010 as a small neighborhood food drive, started in response to the struggling economy, said co-founder Debbie Horwitz.
Since then, PORCH has evolved into a grassroots organization that attempts to eliminate food insecurity at the local level with the support of around 150 neighborhoods, upwards of 300 volunteers and many community business donors.
A campaign asking customers to donate a bag of fresh produce was Weaver Street Market’s first program as a community partner of PORCH and its first program involving the whole co-op.
“It’s a way for them to give but also to spread their philosophy of local and healthy eating,” Horwitz said regarding the partnership. “Our goals are aligned."
The campaign was aimed to supplement the Food for Families program of PORCH, which works with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to identify families with young children who are at risk for hunger and provide nonperishables but also put an emphasis on fresh produce.
“You need decent nutrition, and too often low-income families don’t have access to it," Horwitz said.
Weaver Street Market set the goal of donating a thousand grocery bags of produce within two weeks.
