Being Involved — Volunteering & Donating

Volunteer Roles

Become a volunteer! To join our PORCH-Fearrington community team, contact us at fearrington@porchcommunities.org.

Neighborhood Coordinators, Drivers, & Driver Assistants

WE OWE A BIG “THANK YOU” TO:

• Our 30 neighborhood coordinators, who coordinate the 12 monthly collections of food donations in 23 neighborhoods and make sure those donations are on their own porch for the drivers to pick up on the collection day. These extra special neighbors are all listed below in the Participating Neighborhoods section of this page.
• Our regular drivers who on-load and off-load the food donations: Matt Alexander, Jesse Fearrington, and Jon Darling.
• Our reserve drivers who drive when a regular driver is not available: Mike and Judy Morrow, Grant Wilson, Bill Copelton, and Bill Schwartz.
• Our driver assistants who ride with a driver and assist in loading the neighborhood food donations and unloading when delivered to the CORA Food Pantry in Pittsboro: Phyllis Alexander, Carol Wilson, and Roz Darling

Food & Donation Information

100% of our individual food and cash donations go to the CORA Food Pantry. To make a food donation for CORA as part of the PORCH program, see information below. If you also want to make a cash or check (made out to CORA FOOD PANTRY) donation, place it in a sealed envelope and staple it to one of your bags. We will deliver the envelope to CORA for you as part of the monthly food donations. You can also make a secure, encrypted check or credit card donation to CORA by using the big DONATE button on top of this website. All cash and check donations go directly to CORA. You will receive an immediate tax-deductible receipt with their confirmation “Thank You” message. PORCH Fearrington will also be automatically notified.

Participating Neighborhoods

We collect in the following village neighborhoods. If you don’t see your neighborhood listed, we would love to add you to our list! Email fearrington@porchcommunities.org for more information. To contact a neighborhood coordinator listed below, click on that person’s name.

How Can I Become a Food Donor and What Does That Involve?

To become involved or to ask your neighborhood coordinator a question, find your neighborhood on the listing just above. Each coordinator’s name is listed for each neighborhood. To contact them, click on their name to send them a message.

• For transportation purposes, paper bags, rather than plastic bags, are preferred.
• You do not need to donate every month. Just let your neighborhood coordinator know when you will be participating.
• CORA accepts donations of shelf-stable foods and some personal hygiene items.
• For examples of both categories, check the list of needed items further below on this page.
• Do not donate expired food, baby food, or pet food and no glass containers, please!!
• Since CORA buys some food from regional food banks at discounted prices and receives some from area food stores and other sources, they do not need donations that include the following foods: canned tuna, canned chicken, tomato soup, vegetable beef soup, canned pork and beans, canned pinto beans, dried pinto beans, canned corn, canned sweet peas, canned mixed vegetables, canned green beans, spaghetti, mac & cheese, elbow macaroni, spaghetti sauce, rice, toasted oat cereal, corn flakes cereal, and oatmeal.
• Place all donations in paper bags and please don’t overload them (a larger number of lighter bags is better than a few heavy bags). While plastic bags are OK for the donations, it is a lot easier for our collecting and transferring the food when we arrive at CORA if you use PAPER bags (which are a renewable resource), rather than plastic bags. The contents often fall out of plastic bags, making the handling of large volumes of food more difficult.
• If you find plastic bags to be easier for you, you may use them for your donations. CORA likes to have a supply of plastic bags on hand for people who come for the donated food, so please do donate any plastic bags you do not need.
• An additional opportunity: Help CORA keep their Birthday Closet stocked. They maintain a special closet for children’s birthday parties and need items like cake and frosting mix, small, inexpensive toys (safe and marked for age range), snacks, and party supplies. If you would like to help in this way, please put these items in separate bags that are clearly marked, “Birthday Closet.”

Food Collection Dates

Our neighborhood food collection dates are listed below. Note that the neighborhood coordinators will select an earlier date/time each month to collect the donations from their neighbors. For information about how to get involved, see the information included above on this page. For more information about volunteer opportunities, questions you might have, or comments about our village PORCH program, please contact us at fearrington@porchcommunities.org.

Note that in four months (May, September, November, and December) collections will be conducted ONE WEEK earlier because of holidays, including Memorial Day, Yom Kippur, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Download and print our full 2020 annual 8.5×12 page calendar of collection dates (January – December).