About Us

Welcome to PORCH Western Wake!

We started as a group of women in Cary who got together every month or so to network, chat and have good old fashioned girl time.

We are all business/working women in one profession or another (lawyer, designer, teacher etc.) that have lived in Cary for a number of years and are all now in our … hmmm… in our … 40s, 50s and 60s! In other words, we are still young, and at the same time we are old enough to know that we still have a lot we CAN and want to do and accomplish.

We first learned of PORCH, www.porchnc.org (People Offering Relief for Chapel Hill Carrboro Homes) and its successes as a grass-roots hunger-relief program in late December, 2010, and within weeks we were talking about and talking through ways to get a similar program started in Cary. What appealed to us immediately was not only the energy and success of the existing PORCH program in Chapel Hill but also the simplicity of the program:

• Participation is easy … on a given date people leave their donations on their front porch for volunteers to collect
• Participation is ongoing … donors can participate every month OR just during the months of their choosing. There’s no pressure, no advance commitment
• The impact is local … all of our donations help individuals and families in the Western Wake Communities of Cary, Apex and Morrisville
• Everyone and Anyone can participate … just like our recipients, donors are not asked about political or religious affiliations. This program is just about those who CAN helping those in need!

So, it seemed like a winning formula to us and one that we couldn’t resist! Six weeks later, we had our first collection and fortunately, our feelings and belief in our neighbors were correct! PORCH-Cary (which soon became PORCH-WesternWake) has been successful from its first month. Not because of us but because of the many giving donors who participate and are helping to spread the word to new donors and new neighborhoods.

Now, as our collections and donor lists grow so do our goals and our commitment. We would love to have volunteers and donors from every neighborhood in Western Wake (Cary, Morrisville, and Apex). We’d love to expand to multiple recipient organizations so that we CAN help as many different local people in need as possible. It’s truly amazing the difference that every CAN of canned food CAN make!

So, please join us and enjoy the great feeling of giving all year long!

We are anxious to have you on board!

How PORCH Works

PORCH is built around the very simple idea of a neighborhood food drive. Here’s how it works, in three easy steps:

Once a month, on a designated day, residents place a food donation of individual sized-portions on their front porch.

A volunteer neighborhood coordinator goes porch to porch and picks up the food donations.

The donated food is transported by car to a central location where it is sorted, packed into backpacks, and then delivered to Western Wake Crisis Ministry, USO-NC and National Guard families.

The three-step process is easy and it’s also fast. With the help of dedicated volunteers, all the food collected from the many neighborhood food drives moves from porch to pantries and those in need in just a few hours’ time. From there, it goes to children struggling to get enough food to eat.

Donation History

Below are our annual donation totals for past years:

Date	Volume (lb)	Value
Jan 31, 2016	1,641 lbs	$3,282
Feb 29, 2016	2,172 lbs	$4,344
Mar 31, 2016	1,494 lbs	$2,988
Apr 30, 2016	1,234 lbs	$2,468
May 31, 2016	1,491 lbs	$2,982
Jun 30, 2016	1,005 lbs	$2,010
Jul 31, 2016	2,036 lbs	$4,072
Aug 31, 2016	1,595 lbs	$3,190
Sep 30, 2016	1,446 lbs	$2,892
Nov 30, 2016	2,080 lbs	$4,160
Dec 31, 2016	2,464 lbs	$4,928
Jan 31, 2017	1,497 lbs	$2,994
Feb 28, 2017	1,718 lbs	$3,436
Mar 31, 2017	1,184 lbs	$2,368
Apr 30, 2017	1,593 lbs	$3,186
May 31, 2017	1,510 lbs	$3,020
Jun 30, 2017	1,120 lbs	$2,240
Jul 31, 2017	1,560 lbs	$3,120
Aug 31, 2017	1,425 lbs	$2,850
Sep 30, 2017	1,493 lbs	$2,986
Oct 31, 2017	2,352 lbs	$4,704
Oct 31, 2017	1,488 lbs	$2,976
Nov 30, 2017	2,080 lbs	$4,160
Dec 31, 2017	1,403 lbs	$2,806
Jan 31, 2018	1,389 lbs	$2,778
Feb 17, 2018	995 lbs	$1,990
Mar 17, 2018	1,433 lbs	$2,866
Apr 21, 2018	1,284 lbs	$2,568
May 19, 2018	1,005 lbs	$2,010
Jun 16, 2018	1,142 lbs	$2,284
Jul 21, 2018	1,397 lbs	$2,795
Aug 18, 2018	1,198 lbs	$2,396
	48,925 lbs	$97,849

Participating Neighborhoods

We collect in the following neighborhoods. If you don’t see your neighborhood listed, we would love to add you to our list! Email westernwake@porchcommunities.org for more information.

For more information on Neightborhoods or to contact your neighborhood coordination, go to ‘Get Involved’.

Partners

All of these business hold periodic food drives on behalf of PORCH-WesternWake. If your organization would like to participate monthly, quarterly or even annually please let us know!

Recipients

Currently, all of our donations are allocated between three main recipient organizations:

• Interact - 10%
• National Guard Families - 25%
• The USO-NC (at Raleigh-Durham Airport) - Variable
• Western Wake Crisis Ministry - 65%