The Locker Project partners with 40+ Greater Portland schools, preschools, and local agencies to share more than 40,000 pounds of healthy food each month. Students can take home purple bags of staples as well as green bags of donated and rescued fresh produce and bread, to share with their families. Our whole-family approach to child hunger improves the nutritional content of diets, stretches food budgets and encourages the enjoyment of fresh food at home. The Locker Project also hosts school- and community-based free fresh food events every week throughout the year. Click here for a two-page summary of our programs.
Our History: A Timeline
The simple act of ensuring every student in a single classroom had nourishing food at snack time has grown to serve thousands of children and families across Greater Portland. Since launching in 2014, we have shared more than 2.5 million pounds of nourishing food with our neighbors.
2023 – We created new partnerships, increased our capacity to access locally grown produce, and received Fedcap’s Community Partner of the Year. We were also awarded the $25K for Kids grant from Androscoggin Bank’s Main Street Foundation. By year’s end, we had shared 558,000 pounds of healthy food with more than 2,500 local families.
2022 – We hired a full-time operations manager, bringing our staff to 7 and moved into a new space in South Portland, with ample dry goods and cold storage as well as a welcoming volunteer space. Total healthy food shared topped 480,000 pounds, including more than 30,000 green and purple bags.
2021 – With requests for food assistance higher than ever, and COVID still limiting access to school pantries, we continued with our green and purple bag program. By year-end, bags packed and shared totaled more than 27,000, with total pounds shared about 450,000.
2020 – When the year began, children at 34 program sites had access to healthy food to take home. In March, the pandemic closed the schools and our pantries. We quickly adapted our model. Over the next eight months, we shared 15,400 green produce bags and 3,500 purple staples bags. Total food shared with families reached 425,000 pounds.
2019 – We partnered with the Opportunity Alliance to serve hundreds of Head Start families. Founding Executive Director Katie Brown launched Youth Full Maine to share healthy food with children and families in York County.
2018 – We were operating pantries in 21 schools and shared more than 188,000 pounds of healthy food with local families.
2017 – We began sharing thousands of pounds of fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and bread that would otherwise go to waste. Total food shared topped 100,000 pounds.
2016 – We stocked pantries in 17 schools.
2015 – The Locker Project opened nine new school pantries.
2014 – Katie Brown joined forces with Katie Wallace and, together with a founding board of community members, they formed the Locker Project.
2013 – Good Shepherd Food Bank provided funding to help Katie set up a food pantry in the nurse’s office.
2011 – Katie Wallace, a parent at East End Community School (EECS), began delivering extra food to her daughter’s kindergarten classroom so that every child had something healthy to eat at snack time.