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, residents place a food donation on their front porch, based on a food pantry’s wish list.
A volunteer neighborhood coordinator goes porch to porch and picks up the food donations.
The three-step process is easy and it’s also efficient. With the help of dedicated volunteers, all the food collected from the neighborhood food drives moves from porch to pantries in just a few hours’ time. From there, it goes to individuals and families who struggle with food insecurity.
Why PORCH works
PORCH is easy. Donors just leave food on their porches and volunteers pick it up.
PORCH is consistent. Monthly drives provide an ongoing and stable supply of food to pantries and program participants.
PORCH is inclusive. Anyone can help by donating, collecting, sorting, distributing or organizing volunteers in as little as a few hours a month. We welcome everyone, kids to seniors. PORCH makes a great community service project for students too!
PORCH is flexible. Coordinators can request neighbors donate specific items as required by a pantry in any given month, best meeting the needs of the pantries and families. There is no monthly commitment for donors.
PORCH Marietta
We are a local all-volunteer, grassroots organization committed to fighting hunger in our community. We collect food and cash donations through monthly neighborhood food drives, and distribute donations to local food pantries to feed families in need. Our partners include The Center for Family Resources, Brumby Elementary Food Pantry, Sawyer Road Elementary Food Pantry, Lockheed Elementary Food Pantry, The Pantry on Church, the Performance Learning Center, KSU Marietta and more.
Neighbors helping neighbors. PORCH Marietta was started in response to the growing rate of food insecurity caused by the pandemic. Many of our friends and neighbors were looking for a way to make a difference in our community. PORCH gives people the opportunity to make an immediate impact in their communities by providing an ongoing and stable supply of food to pantries and program participants.
Anyone can help by donating, collecting, sorting, distributing, or organizing volunteers in as little as 1-2 hours a month. We hope to grow and add many more communities to our team. For more information, email us at marietta@porchcommunities.org.
Our Programs
PORCH for Pantries
Local pantries are a critical lifeline for families who struggle to put food on the table. Each month, Neighborhood Coordinators volunteering with PORCH Marietta collect non-perishable items from local porches and then sort the items before delivering them to our community’s pantries. These pantries serve some of our most vulnerable neighbors, who are likely to also face challenges related to affordable housing, transportation and child care. Our pantry partners continue to see increases in demand, and report that their partnership with PORCH-Marietta has allowed them to sustain and expand their services.
No child should struggle to focus in school because they are hungry, and teachers should not have to spend their own personal funds to buy snacks for their students. That’s why PORCH Marietta partners with local businesses and individuals to sponsor a healthy snack program for children in Title 1 public schools. If you are interested in becoming a PORCH for Schools sponsor, reach out for more information.
PORCH for Schools relies solely on the support of sponsors to provide healthy snacks. Please help us express our gratitude by supporting their businesses and organizations!
As a supplement to the non-perishable goods that are more widely available, PORCH Marietta’s Fresh program provides a monthly distribution of fresh food – including milk and eggs – to our food insecure neighbors who visit our pantry partners.
See the donate button at the top of the page to make a financial donation online. It’s simple and very helpful for our pantries. We’ll do the shopping for you.
Looking for an easy way to donate food? Going to be away on your neighborhood’s collection day? Try ordering from our Amazon registry! This is updated monthly with many items from our food pantries’ wish lists. Your donation will be shipped directly to PORCH-Marietta.
Great news! As of September 2024, PORCH-Marietta has donated over 90,000 pounds of food to help our hungry neighbors! This translates into over 75,000 meals that might otherwise have been skipped. Many thanks to our generous donors.
Supporting Neighborhoods
We would love to add your neighborhood to our team! Contact us at marietta@porchcommunities.org if you would like to reach your neighborhood coordinator to find out if we collect in your area. Click the below for the list of participating neighborhoods.
Founded by Liz Platner in 2022, PORCH Marietta is part of the growing network of PORCH affiliates.
About PORCH
PORCH Communities fights food insecurity by creating sustainable hunger relief programs at the local level. Started in 2010 in Chapel Hill, NC, PORCH has grown into a repeatable model of monthly neighborhood food drives and fresh produce distribution supplying food pantries, schools, and community programs across the country. PORCH’s volunteer network, now in 550 neighborhoods across 10 states, has contributed more than $12 million dollars in hunger relief.
