Oak Island, North Carolina

Trash Can Porter's nonprofit arm, T.C. Porter Co.

Oak Island is a lovely, largely residential coastal town on the southern end of North Carolina. The 12-mile-long island has about 10 miles of beachfront and is on the Atlantic Ocean to the south and the Intracoastal Waterway to the north. It has about 8,400 year-round residents and more than 40,000 visitors and seasonal residents. Which means a lot of vacation rentals!

In 2023, Raleigh, NC, resident Cindy Callahan, who has a second home in “OKI,” saw a need for trash can services for absentee property owners. So she and her husband started a side business called Trash Can Porter. Along the way, Cindy, who has worked with food insecurity for years in Raleigh, also saw how much food was being thrown out by vacationers. To help with this, she started a nonprofit arm, called T.C. Porter Co. She gives her customers special donation bins for their rentals and will then pick up, for free, leftover unopened nonperishables on trash collection day. While that service is only for customers, she also invites anyone to donate food to her porch at 127 NW 18th Street, Oak Island. (Cindy also hopes to have occasional food drives and perhaps start a “take-a-toy, leave-a-toy” bin initiative at the beach. We’ll keep you posted on that!)

Other donation locations

People can also donate unopened nonperishables directly to the Oak Island Senior Center, which runs a pantry (and is where she takes donations):

Oak Island Senior Center
Address: 5918 E Oak Island Dr, Oak Island
Phone: 910-278-5224

The donation bin is outside in the parking lot, so is always available

Accepted: unopened nonperishables for its free food pantry