This week’s Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Debbie Horwitz from PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro.

The coronavirus pandemic is having a major financial impact on a lot of families, causing a significant spike in food insecurity. Fortunately, organizations like PORCH are dedicated to helping residents.

“I think that people are very lucky to live in a community like ours,” said Horwitz, “where there are so many organizations that are really stepping up right now and increasing their effort to really meet the need because food insecurity is growing.”

Along with Susan Romaine and Christine Cotton, Horwitz has led PORCH for the last 10 years, providing fresh fruit, vegetables and more to hundreds of families in our community.

“We started with only 12 families in our fresh food program and we’ve built that program to serve 475 families. Currently that’s over 2,000 people, including over 1,200 children.”

PORCH’s work became even more urgent in recent months when they were asked to help organize a massive food distribution effort at the Chapel Hill Public Library each week alongside the Town of Chapel Hill and the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

“These distributions have happened throughout the years at public housing communities,” said Horwitz, “but when the COVID-19 crisis hit, they asked PORCH to come in and really helped with the logistics so that we could increase the number served.”

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