This week’s Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Carrie Brogren, who founded the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Foodies group on Facebook.

First launched in July 2019, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Foodies group now has more than 4,700 members. But everything changed when the COVID-19 outbreak forced restaurants to close to dine-in customers.

“We decided to sort of create a platform to promote the current needs, which was supporting our local restaurants in other ways,” Brogren said.

One evening, a member of the Facebook group reached out to Jimmy John’s and had 75 sandwiches delivered to the emergency department at UNC.

After that, Foodie members decided to shift their focus to helping the community.

“We were made aware that IFC had seen a decline in donations,” Brogren said, “so we decided maybe we could shift our focus by ordering meals and then have those meals delivered to charities like IFC and the Ronald McDonald house.”

Members of the group work to support restaurants and organizations through delivery and takeout orders.

“Foodie members can sign up on a certain day and they can choose which group they would like to feed on any given night. They can choose the restaurant of their choice, the restaurant benefits and delivers the meal and it’s just sort of a win win for everybody.”

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