Locker Project staff member Jeff Lyons “rescues” food from grocery stores and other entities that otherwise would be thrown away and brings them to the organization’s warehouse in South Portland to be packed up and distributed. Drew Johnson / Sentry

Since it became an official nonprofit in 2014, the South Portland-based Locker Project has distributed 3 million pounds of nutritious food to children and families in need.

While 10 years of operations and the massive volume of food it has been able to distribute are milestones worth celebrating, they’re also sobering.

“It’s a response to how bad the need is,” said Kevin Bogart, deputy director at the Locker Project. “It’s kind of a bittersweet celebration.”

The organization has steadily lengthened its list of partners over the past decade, which now includes more than 40 schools throughout Cumberland County, grocers, other nonprofits and food pantries, allowing it to reach more and more families in need. It currently serves over 40,000 pounds of food monthly to roughly 2,500 families in the Greater Portland area, the majority of whom live in Portland, South Portland and Westbrook.

Executive Director Kathryn Sargent started out as a volunteer and said she has seen the demand consistently grow. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the organization to nearly double operations – both the amount of food it was distributing and the amount of full-time staff needed to meet the challenge.

“We doubled the amount of food that we were putting out and, since then, we’ve about doubled again,” Sargent said. “The pandemic created a tremendous amount of need.”

The Locker Project distributed more than 600,000 pounds of food in 2024 alone.

“I think the pandemic showed us how close folks really were to that cliff,” Bogart said. “The price of things getting higher and higher each year and the ability to access certain resources (is) getting harder and harder. I think the pandemic itself was that last barrier for folks that pushed them right over the edge.”

The Locker Project now boasts 150 individual volunteers, but has only a handful of paid staff members. Its plan for 2025 is to ensure it can keep up with the pace.

“We’ve grown so much, but we’re still a small team,” Bogart said. “It takes a lot of funding to do what we do so we’re trying to focus on making sure we can get that foundation beneath us to really support our programs.”

Fundraising will be a major key this year, Sargent said.

“Our budget for the current fiscal year is about $630,000,” she said. “We don’t receive funding from schools or cities or any government support. We’re totally reliant on the community, on individuals, on local businesses, on local foundations.”

Kevin Bogart, deputy director of the Locker Project, packs boxes of food at the organization’s warehouse on Tuesday. “Our ideal scenario is that we work ourselves out of a job here, but I don’t see that coming anytime soon,” he said. Drew Johnson / Sentry

With plenty of smiles on their faces, staff members and volunteers at the Locker Project’s base of operations on Wescott Road Tuesday were clearly enthusiastic about their mission. However, someday, they hope the Locker Project can close its doors.

“Like most basic needs nonprofits, we would prefer not to need to exist. It’s really a tragedy when kids go hungry and that’s why I’m here, that’s why everybody who works here is here,” Sargent said. “We really feel strongly that these are the most important years for a child; when they should be growing and developing and able to learn in school. Without good food, you just can’t do that.”

“Our ideal scenario is that we work ourselves out of a job here, but I don’t see that coming anytime soon,” Bogart said. “I think us and a lot of like-minded organizations in Maine have an uphill battle in front of us but, at the same time, we’re pretty blessed to have such a great support system.”

Sargent said, like any nonprofit, the Locker Project encourages people to donate what they can. However, with so many families in need of its services, she recognizes there are plenty of others who only have the means to provide for their own families.

Sargent encourages those without the means to donate to ensure the children in their lives are getting the nutrition they need to grow, learn and play.

“Being aware of the importance of child nutrition is something that everyone can do,” she said. “Just recognizing how important that is and supporting public policies. There are federal programs and school programs that rely on the public to care about these issues and support them.”

For more information on the Locker Project, including how to volunteer and donate, go to mainelockerproject.org or call 207-899-9540.