It is CORA's belief that it our obligation as citizens of this community to combat hunger, whatever its cause may be and to do so in a nondiscriminatory way.

CORA closely collaborates with over 20 referral agencies (Department of Social Services, Chatham Family Resource Center , JOCCA, Council of Aging, Salvation Army, Churches, and others) whose mission it is to help individuals and families overcome various crisis and emergency situations and to identify nd verify their need for temporary food assistance.

Families are being served up to four (4) times within a twelve (12) month period to support themselves during a period of need while they are under the care of
a social agency. During each visit families receive emergency food (groceries)
for seven (7) days and the equivalent of 3 meals per day, based on a nutritionally balanced diet.

The CORA Food Pantry is open every weekday for a total of 18 hours per week, Over 100 volunteers cover the entire spectrum of responsibilities, from serving families to pantry management, provisioning, volunteer coordination, agency relations, PR/marketing, fund raising and donor support, event planning, statistics and financial reporting, and others. Volunteer hours per year are estimated at 3500.

CORA started to serve 52 families in 1989 and now expects to handle 2400 families/8400 people visits during the fiscal year 2006/2007. Families will have received food for a total of 176,000 meals during 2006/2007.

At present, CORA depends entirely on private (individuals and groups) donations of food and cash. We buy food at the Durham Branch Food Bank at 20c per pound. We also buy food from Loews, Food Lion, and other retail stores at marginally reduced prices and through the donation of Loews “greenpoints”.
Our weighted average purchase cost of food has been $0.68 per pound.
TEFAP (The Emergency Federal Assistance Program) provides food monthly
at no cost. A major source of food and cash are regular food drives (36 in total during 2006) in several Chatham County neighborhoods, churches, schools,
and others. CORA's largest single source of funds is the annual Chatham Hunger Walk ($26,000 in 2006/2007).

Several important announcements will
be made over the
next few months.
Be sure to check back
on a regular basis.