CORA Food Pantry moves to new quarters

Posted Tuesday, September 25, 2007

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Pittsboro, NC - The Chatham Outreach Alliance (CORA) Food Pantry will relocate to the former Chatham County Mental Health office building at 73 Camp Drive in the Chatham County office complex on September 29th and begin serving clients from its new location on Monday, October 1st. Until that time, clients should continue to visit the existing CORA location on Camp Drive.

The Pittsboro-based Food Pantry provides seven-day emergency food supplies to inneed families and individuals up to four times during a 12-month period. Qualifyingfood recipients must reside anywhere in Chatham County and be under the care of a social services agency. In the past year, CORA Food Pantry provided food to more than 4,000 people including at least 1,800 children.

According to CORA’s president, Udo Koopmann, “The demand for food pantry support has increased more than 500% since 2000, and CORA has been struggling to operate out of small, inadequate facilities. The new building allows us to nearly double our space and locate our entire operation under one roof.” At least 10% of Chatham County’s population, or nearly 6,000 citizens, live at or
below the federal poverty line. Twenty percent of them are senior citizens, and 30% are children. At least half of Chatham County’s working age adults living in poverty are employed.

The Chatham Outreach Alliance was founded in 1989 by a small group of Chatham County churches. In its first year it served 52 families, and by 2000 it was serving 500 families. In the past year the number of families to receive food support from CORA totaled more than 2,300.

Volunteers are always needed, as the demand for food among the less fortunate continues to grow in Chatham County. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Lyndie Bracey, CORA Food Pantry Manager, at (919)542-5020.