Two local non-profits announced they will be merging to further their missions of serving meals to Orange County.

The Orange County Rural Alliance and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels announced to volunteers Tuesday the two organizations have merged to become Meals on Wheels Orange County. An email to volunteers said the boards of both organizations unanimously approved the deal on February 6.

In a message from board chairs Norma White and Patty Bergey, the pair wrote the guiding principle behind the decision to merge is the opportunity to better provide equitable access to meal services across the county. They said Meals on Wheels Orange County will continue to serve home-bound adults, adults with disabilities and those convalescing, but now the merged operation should serve a larger number of recipients more efficiently and cost-effectively.

The release said the decision to merge was also largely spurred by limited funding for each organization in its smaller size. By being a single organization, leadership hopes the program will be better positioned to compete for larger grants and funding.

According to Meals on Wheels Orange County, the non-profit will maintain headquarters in Chapel Hill while using the Hillsborough facility as a satellite hub for food distribution to the northern areas of the county. According to leadership, the meal schedule maintained by the separate organizations will continue through 2020. The program’s goal is to raise enough funding to enable additional meals to be offered to those on the routes served by the Hillsborough satellite location in 2021, with the long-term vision being each recipient having access to five hot meals each week.

To learn more about the vision of the new organization, visit the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels website.

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