
Volunteers help a client select his groceries for the week. Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster
At the end of September, the food pantry Project FEED must either relocate or shut down for at least a year due to construction at its site in Woodfords Congregational Church. The organization is frantically searching for a temporary location, or it will have to close the operation for the duration of the construction project. It provides free food to 60 Cumberland County households in need per week.
Project FEED (Food Emergency Exchange Depot) has rented space at Portland’s Woodfords Congregational Church at a low cost since the pantry was founded in 1975. The volunteer-run organization distributes between a half ton and two tons of food per month, according to Project FEED’s board Chair Steve Gray. He has volunteered with the group since 2014 and said he is unsure what they will have to do at the end of September.
Project FEED serves clients from across Cumberland County, said Gray. There are no geographical or income restrictions on who can use the pantry.
“We don’t believe that any of our clients don’t have a real need,” said Gray.
In January 2024, Community Housing of Maine proposed a plan to convert Woodfords Congregational Church’s parish house into 37 age-restricted affordable housing units. CHOM designated space in the completed building for Project FEED to operate out of once construction is over in October 2025 or later.
CHOM also offered Project FEED space during the construction, but Gray said it would not work for a functioning food pantry.
“Community Housing of Maine assisted us, but the places that they had space were not really compatible with our operation, so it did not work out,” said Gray.
“They have given us some temporary space to move our stuff in storage, but we’re looking for space to continue to operate those years,” he said.
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 3 p.m., the first 20 people to descend into the basement of Woodfords Congregational Church get a number in line and wait for their turn to select a weeks’ worth of groceries for their household from Project FEED. Food options include local produce, halal meat and other culturally appropriate foods for the pantry’s immigrant and refugee clientele, such as corn flour.
“Our clients pick what’s useful for them,” said Gray.
Project FEED receives food from the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program, the nonprofits Food Rescue through Wayside Food Programs and Mainers Feeding Mainers, and donations from community-run food drives and local food businesses. Entirely volunteer-run, the program operates on an annual budget of about $50,000 monetary donations from individuals and churches, said Gray.
Project FEED’s budget goes almost entirely toward purchasing food to distribute. This financially restricts their ability to rent a commercial temporary location to operate from next year, said Delene Perley, volunteer pantry operations manager. She has volunteered with the organization for 20 years since moving to Maine in her retirement.
Project FEED volunteers have been searching for over a year for a temporary location but have come up empty. Perley said renting a commercial space would be too expensive for the organization. They have contacted every house of worship in the area to see if they had a free or low-cost space to use, but all potential options lacked components critical to Project FEED’s operation.
The new space must have 1,200 square feet of space, parking for clients, a way to move heavy loads of food, and be accessible for disabled clients. Ideally, the new location would be close to Woodfords Congregational Church and not too near another food pantry, said Perley.
Portland resident Paul Ditter has walked to Project FEED every second Tuesday to supplement his food since June, after a friend told him about the organization, he said. The last day he can get food from the pantry before they may be forced to close their doors is Tuesday, Sept. 24.
“That’s it,” he said. “I’ll have to find somewhere else to go.”
Gray and Perley expressed concern about losing contact with clients if they moved locations or temporarily shut down operation. They are collecting emails from everyone who visits the pantry, but not everyone has email access.
Jane and Tim Williams said they have been receiving food from Project FEED for 15 years. Born and raised in Portland, they started using the service once they moved into the Woodfords Corner neighborhood. While they originally only got food from the pantry one or twice a year, their landlord increased their rent by $100 over the past several years and they now more heavily rely on the panty and visit once every two weeks, said Jane Williams. It is the only food pantry they currently utilize.
Neither of the Williams knows how to use a computer or has an email address, so receiving updates about Project FEED’s new location or a pause in their service would be difficult, they said.
“Oh god, no, I wouldn’t know how to find that out,” said Jane Williams.

The food pantry has operated from its 202 Woodford Street location since 1975. Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster
Gray and Perley are concerned not only about losing clients with this transition, but their volunteers as well. After their number of volunteers dropped off during the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to reduce the pantry’s operation from five days a week to three. They currently have about 30 volunteers who interact with clients, shop for food and transport donated food.
As they continue to search for a location to move to at the end of the month, Gray and Perley remain confident in the ability of the organization to overcome this challenge, as it has overcome other hurdles before. In the past five years they have dealt with COVID-19 forcing them to remotely coordinate food distribution; flooding in their basement space; and the loss of many crucial volunteers.
“Well, I feel like we’ll figure it out. We’ve kind of figured it out in the past,” said Perley.
“We have various possibilities,” said Gray. “Given our experience with possibilities, none of them are anywhere close to guaranteed. But we are extremely persistent.”
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