Porch2Porch
The TRAR Foundation is excited to launch our first community initiative, Porch2Porch, on September 1st, 2024! Porch2Porch is a food recovery and food waste prevention initiative, aiming to repurpose household pantry and produce items that would otherwise sit on the shelf by delivering them to those who can use them. This is the perfect platform for many Nashville residents, from those who have leftover groceries to those who want to volunteer in the food supply area to those who want to mitigate food waste or need affordable ways of accessing produce and pantry staples. Our first launch will focus on neighborhoods in East Nashville, but we hope to expand to the rest of our city shortly! All Nashville residents may enroll in Porch2Porch now to stay updated on our latest developments and gain early bird access to the platform upon launch! Learn more about the platform below.
Become a Donor, Driver, or Recipient
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Donate
Help support those in need by donating food items such as fruits, vegetables, canned goods, and more. Your generous contributions will go a long way in providing essential nutrition to individuals and families facing food insecurity.
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Drive
Volunteer to serve as a driver to pick up and drop off donated food items, ensuring they reach their destination safely and efficiently. Your time and effort will play a vital role in facilitating the distribution of essential resources to those in need within our community.
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Receive
If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, you can sign up to receive food donations through our platform. Our goal is to provide support and resources to individuals and families facing challenges accessing nutritious meals, ensuring that no one goes hungry in our community.
Frequently Asked Questions
Recipient
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Once you enter the recipient portal, you will be directed to a page listing available items in your area. They will be organized into the following categories: fruits, vegetables, meat/proteins, canned/dry goods, baking mixes, eggs and dairy, and home-cooked meals. Browse through these categories based on your needs, and select items to claim! Currently, you will only be able to browse listed items; we hope to be able to honor specific item requests in the near future!
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There is currently no limit on the number of items you can request! In the spirit of this exchange, we hope to minimize food waste and ensure that these products are put to good use. Please take all you can eat, but please eat all that you take!
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We hope that you will receive your food within 48 hours of claiming it in the portal. You will be notified if this timeframe shifts for any reason.
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No, your food items will be left outside your door regardless of whether you are home or not. You will be notified of an estimated delivery window and when your item has arrived. Please keep in mind that the item’s freshness cannot be guaranteed past the time of delivery to your home. We hope that providing an estimated delivery window will help you plan for when to collect the item from outside your door.
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Items listed on our website will be automatically removed from listing on their estimated expiration date as provided by the donor. This estimated expiration will also be in the listing information when you claim the item. A photograph of the item will also be included in the listing. Beyond these measures, we cannot guarantee the condition of the item beyond the estimated expiration date. We encourage donors to store the item in a way that will best preserve its freshness until the pickup time. We also encourage you to bring the items inside as close to the delivery time as possible.
Donor
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You can donate any food items you have on hand that you know you will not use! Our aim is to repurpose food that would otherwise be wasted. Food items may belong to any of the following categories: fruits, vegetables, meat/proteins, canned/dry goods, baking mixes, and eggs and dairy. Additionally, if you would like to donate a home-cooked meal, this is also an available and much-appreciated option. If you are donating a home-cooked meal, we just ask that you include ingredients in your listing in the case of allergies! We appreciate your generosity!
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Once you enter the donation portal, you will be directed to a form requesting information about the item you wish to donate. The form will require you to input your Porch2Porch username, the item category, the item name, and the item quantity. You will also be asked to input an estimated expiration date for the item and upload a photograph of the item. Finally, you will be asked to provide a brief description of the item. This is a good place to include information such as purchase date or to provide additional details that may be important about the item. Please do not include any identifying information such as your phone number or address in this field.
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Once a recipient claims the item you have listed, you will be notified. Within 48 hours, you will receive a 4 hour pickup window. Please place the item outside your door sometime before that window. You do not need to be at home when the item is picked up. Items cannot be collected from inside your home, and drivers will not knock on your door or ring your doorbell, so please leave the item outside!
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Yes, you can deliver items yourself! In fact, we encourage it for items that are really nearing the end of their shelf life or for those of you who have the time to make the delivery. When your item is claimed, you will be notified and given the option to deliver the item yourself. In this case, you can pick a delivery window that works with your schedule, and the recipient will be notified of when to expect the item. We completely understand that delivering items yourself may not be possible, however. This is why we also have our volunteer driver service!
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When listing an item for donation, we encourage you to consider its remaining shelf-life and provide an estimated expiration accordingly. While we do not wish to waste food, we also want to ensure recipients are receiving quality food that would otherwise be wasted, not food that is already past the point of consumption. Ultimately we ask donors to consider: Would I still eat this item if I could? Would I still eat it before it’s estimated expiration?
When leaving items on your porch for one of our volunteer drivers to pick up and deliver to the recipient, please try and store it in a way that will not hasten spoilage. For example, avoid placing produce in direct sunlight or unwrapped on the ground. For items requiring refrigeration, if it is possible to place them outside in a refrigerator bag or an ice pack, we would also appreciate this effort. We understand that this may not always be possible, and first and foremost, we appreciate your good intentions by working with our service.
Driver
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Becoming a driver is simple! Once you create your Porch2Porch account, simply enter the “Driver” portal and select which routes you would like to cover. All we ask is that you complete the routes which you volunteer for as recipients are eagerly awaiting your delivery. You can be a driver, a donor, and a recipient all at once depending on your needs!
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You can complete deliveries completely on your own time! Available routes will have estimated pickup and delivery windows, and you can select which routes best suit your availability. We will never assign you a route. We hope that you can serve on a schedule that best suits your time commitments.
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No, we cannot offer compensation to drivers. We are a grassroots non-profit organization, and we rely heavily on volunteers like yourself to serve our goal of increasing food access and limiting food waste. We sincerely appreciate your efforts and your generosity.
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No, you will not and should not interact with the donor or the recipient. Our “porch to porch” model hopes to bring food items to and from doorsteps in our community. The model of our service aims to serve folks from all walks of life, and we do not want to intrude upon their privacy nor their anonymity by inviting ourselves beyond their front doors and into their homes and their lives. We hope our drivers will take the same approach and respect the desire of many of our users to remain faceless throughout this process.