In two weeks, Weaver Street staff, owners, and shoppers donated over $52,000 to PORCH’s Food for Families program! Thanks for the amazing support!
Weaver Street Community, your PORCH donations are having an immediate impact on our neighbors in need of healthy food. We’ll deliver boxes of fresh groceries to 135 PORCH families on Wednesday, March 22. Here’s what happens with the donations, and how you can participate further:
- One Wednesday a month for the next year, 135 families in PORCH’s Food for Families program will receive the “bags” of fresh groceries donated by WSM shoppers. That’s the 120 refugee families we’ve assisted through our previous campaigns plus 15 additional low-income families.
- Each month Carolyn, our produce merchandiser, works with Debbie from PORCH to turn each $30 bag donation into a 40 pound box of fresh vegetables and fruit. The core selection (sweet potatoes, leafy greens, bananas, and much more) stays the same, but seasonal items (strawberries, blueberries, watermelon) are added as they become available.
- On Tuesday afternoon before the delivery, a group of Weaver Street Market owners and workers meets at our Food House facility to sort and box the fresh produce that arrived from our produce vendors early that morning. The boxes are stored on pallets in our produce cooler to keep the food fresh.
- Wednesday morning, our drivers load the pallets onto one of the WSM trucks and deliver the food to the pickup site at the Homestead Aquatic Center, where PORCH volunteers help us unload the boxes.
- By 11 AM, a long line has gathered as families wait to pick up a week’s worth of food. PORCH provides whole chickens, milk, rice, and eggs to go with the produce boxes.
Help Us Sort and Pack at Our Food House
With the number of PORCH families growing, we need more volunteers to help us sort and box the produce. Volunteers use carts to move a box around the room, adding potatoes, peppers, and more until the box is filled (see video below). It’s fun, and no heavy lifting is necessary!
Volunteers will meet on the following Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6 PM at WSM’s Food House at 437 Dimmocks Mill Rd, Suite 10, Hillsborough. To sign up as a volunteer or ask questions, please contact Brenda at brenda.c@weaverstreetmarket.coop.
3/21/2017
4/25/2017
5/23/2017
6/20/2017
7/18/2017
8/15/2017
9/19/2017
10/17/2017
11/14/2017
12/12/2017