One Chapel Hill group will walk through local neighborhoods this Halloween asking not for candy, but for canned food.
The nonprofit organization TABLE, in collaboration with UNC student volunteers, will circulate through the Southern Village and Meadowmont neighborhoods dressed in costume and “trick-or-feed” from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
The InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at UNC has also partnered with the organization for the event.
TABLE, founded in 2008 with a group of UNC undergraduates, serves food weekly to 87 elementary school students in five Chapel Hill and Carrboro after-school programs.
Last year’s pilot “trick-or-feed” effort collected more than a ton of food, said the nonprofit’s executive director, Joy MacVane.
“Hunger and poverty don’t play favorites,” MacVane said. “It doesn’t matter the demographic or the neighborhood.”
Every Friday, the organization stuffs backpacks with food collected from this program and others like it to send home with children at risk of hunger.
The students who receive this food are also eligible for free or reduced-price meals during the week.
The children also need food during weekends, over school breaks and summer vacation, and TABLE addresses this need, MacVane said.