2022-2025 Strategic Plan:

PORCH, A Place for Everyone

chapelhill.porchcommunities.org

A Year of Transition and

Planning Our Future

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Overview

It all started with just a few cans of tuna. Founded in 2010, PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s simple, monthly neighborhood food drives were aimed at helping a local pantry restock its shelves during the height of the Great Recession.

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As the number of participating neighborhoods grew, our small grassroots organization slowly evolved into a community-wide hunger relief effort, strengthening the safety net for some of our most vulnerable members.

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Today, PORCH prides itself on a dozen years of steady growth and program enhancement: filling gaps, working with partners to enroll families who need our support, prioritizing cultural preferences, and identifying fresh food partners – all while navigating economic downturns and a global pandemic.

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During the recent pandemic, through the generosity of our donors and volunteers, we increased fresh food support and introduced grocery gift cards and now serve 525 families.

We know there is more to be done. Nearly 12 percent of

North Carolina families are food insecure, and PORCH is on the precipice of an incredible opportunity to increase its impact even more.

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Shifting Our Structure

Our Board embarked on a new strategic plan to meet the growing demands of families facing food insecurity.

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We want to strengthen our infrastructure, our leadership, and our programs to meet this growing need. We are shifting our structure from a founders' model to a board/staff model. Our founders are moving into new roles by early 2023, and new Board and staff leadership will be in place to drive our expanded efforts.

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This strategic plan is the product of the joint efforts of the founders and our new leadership.

The plan calls for sustaining and building on our strong foundation to make an even greater community impact by ...

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Maintaining our clear mission, sustaining and enhancing our high-impact programs, and building the capacity for quality growth.

Growing our financial resources in order to purchase fresh food and provide grocery gift cards for a larger number of families.

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Enhancing our partnerships and cross-sector collaborations to better serve our community.

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Engaging more members of our community, especially through food drives, our unique point of entry, and rallying our community behind a vision that all families have sufficient food- fresh, healthy food.

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And last, but not least, building a strong, nimble volunteer and staff organization in order to do these things and stand on the shoulders of our amazing founders!

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WE BELIEVE

Vision

Mission

Everyone in our community has access to enough fresh food to lead an active, healthy life

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Fighting hunger by mobilizing neighbors, building community, and providing fresh, healthy food

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Everyone should have access to fresh healthy food.

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Respect requires providing food choice with cultural sensitivity.

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Our community is responsible for each other.

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PORCH is a catalyst for community change.

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2025 Strategic Planning Goals

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Serve 700 families in our Food for Families program

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Grow PORCH’s financial resources to fulfill its mission to $1M annually, $1.4M including in-kind contributions

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Be a leader in our community’s collaborative efforts to end hunger

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Increase by 30% our community engagement - food drive participants, neighborhood coordinators, and volunteers

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Leadership & Organizational Structure

Core

Programs

Financial

Sustainability

Build a sustainable leadership structure, volunteer base, and operating location to support PORCH’s mission

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Evaluate and strengthen core programs and operating processes to deliver high quality products and services to the families PORCH serves

Create a comprehensive development plan to expand PORCH’s base of support to $1M annually

Community

Engagement

Partnerships

Engage a large base of participants using food drives and other volunteer opportunities to support PORCH

Further develop key partnerships to deliver food programs for families in need and serve as a catalyst for collaboration

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PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro, based on a simple model of monthly neighborhood food drives, brings our community together every month to provide food support for our neighbors experiencing food insecurity. Powered by volunteers, food is purchased, collected, sorted, packed, and distributed with loving care, providing sustenance for thousands of neighbors in need. At the heart of our efforts is the sense of community formed between donors, volunteers, PORCH program participants, and community partner organizations, as we work together to address the problem of hunger right here at home.

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Our Programs

In North Carolina, 1,245,870 people are facing hunger, or 12 percent of the state’s population.

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Of that 12 percent, nearly one-third are children. This program provides a monthly distribution of a variety of fresh food – like milk, eggs, chicken, fruits, and vegetables – to over 500 families with children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

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Food for Families

No child should miss classes or struggle in school because they are hungry. That’s why PORCH partners with local businesses and individuals to provide healthy snack foods to children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the district-wide pre-K program, and two local after-school programs.

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Food for Schools

Neighborhood food pantries have become a critical lifeline for families who struggle to put food on the table. Each month, PORCH collects food from neighborhoods across Chapel Hill-Carrboro and delivers food to pantries for distribution.

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In 2022, PORCH worked with 13 pantries to distribute 2,100 bags of the most needed non-perishable items that families need.

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Food for Pantries

Food insecurity is a growing issue, with roughly 21% of children in North Carolina living in families that are struggling to put food on the table.

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Food For Thought raises awareness about food insecurity, calls attention to the intersectionality of food insecurity and poverty, and strives to engage the community in grassroots, as well as systemic, solutions to address hunger.

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Food for Thought

Our Impact

• PORCH’s Food for Families program now serves over 500 (and growing) local families referred to us by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) social workers.

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• Each month, participating families receive a bag of non-perishable staples, a box of produce, milk, eggs, and a grocery gift card.

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• While the food is valued at $1,500 in annual support for each family, the connections formed during the hand-to-hand deliveries go well beyond that.

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Our Impact

• 96.5% of our families report always or often using ALL of the food provided by PORCH, which lasts an average of 9 days.

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• 97% report that the fresh food provided helps them serve healthier meals to their families.

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• With funds saved thanks to what PORCH provides, families report being able to cover additional expenses such as personal and household items, household bills (rent, utilities, etc.), medical expenses, and transportation.

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• The result? Alleviating anxiety and hunger associated with food insecurity, reducing disparities, increasing equity in access to healthy fresh food, and enabling families to apply their resources toward other needs.

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Our Impact

• Through our Food for Pantries and Food for Schools programs, PORCH also provides hundreds of bags of non-perishables to stock the shelves of local pantries and supply healthy snacks that are distributed by CHCCS school social workers.

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• Our regular deliveries to local pantries, public schools, and families are made possible by the ongoing support of hundreds of volunteers and dozens of other committed partners, including the local business and nonprofit community, local government, and foundations.

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• From this outpouring of community support, PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro just reached a new milestone: over $5 million in hunger relief shared with our community.

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• The simple neighborhood food drive model that PORCH created in Chapel Hill-Carrboro has been replicated in 27 other cities, including chapters in seven other states.

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PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro faces unique opportunities, and its Board of Directors is committed to standing on the shoulders of its Founders and meeting its next challenge: to find new and innovative ways to make an even bigger impact in hunger relief, at a time when the need is greater than ever.

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As 2023 Begins...

2023-2024 Action Plan

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Leadership and Organizational Structure

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• Complete the Board’s transition from day-to-day operations to the roles of governance, strategy and external relations

• Transition the Founders to emeritus board roles and ensure new board leadership is in place
• Hire a Program Manager and an Executive Director to assume operating responsibilities

• Continue to build a corps of volunteers to collect, sort, package and deliver the food

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2023-2024 Action Plan

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Core Programs

• Continue to evaluate and enhance our core programs, especially Food for Families, and strengthen the partnerships with food providers for high quality at greater scale
• Provide our staff and volunteers with technology, space and infrastructure needed for growth

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• Expand our base of sustaining individual donors – regular, annual, and monthly donors

• Work with Neighborhood coordinators to invite more food drive participants to be financial donors

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• Develop business sponsorships with all sized companies, including grocery chains

• Continue to seek grants as a source of funds for infrastructure and growth

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2023-2024 Action Plan

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Community Engagement

• Broaden participation in food drives, our major point of entry- more neighborhoods and new venues, including multi-family housing, businesses, churches and schools

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• Target engagement efforts to more diverse participation – students/recent grads, young families, and volunteer demographics similar to the families enrolled in our programs

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• Develop greater awareness of PORCH utilizing our major assets – yard signs, PORCH weeks, and our large base of volunteers and donors

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2023-2024 Action Plan

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Partnerships

• Build on the Capstone Project with TABLE and IFC and promote cross-sector collaboration

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• Develop more strong partnerships with community organizations to help identify families to enroll and to provide other services these families need

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Host a Food Drive

Connect With Us

PO Box 16363

Chapel Hill, NC 27516

chc@porchcommunities.org

chapelhill.porchcommunities.org

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