Grants will help 83 nonprofits in all 16 counties provide food, housing, healthcare, and other essential services
PORTLAND, Maine (June 7, 2023) – The John T. Gorman Foundation has awarded 83 grants totaling $1.5 million to provide food, shelter, health care, and other essential services to Mainers in need through its 2023 Direct Service Grant Program.
“Basic access to food, housing, and other essentials continues to be a pressing concern for too many Maine people,” said Lauralee Raymond, John T. Gorman Foundation Manager, Special Initiatives. “Through this year’s Direct Service Grant Program, the John T. Gorman Foundation is privileged to be able to strengthen the efforts of organizations across the state to address these critical needs in their communities.”
This year, the Foundation awarded more than half of its Direct Service Grants to organizations focused on food insecurity and housing. Additional grants went to fund initiatives that provide health care, legal aid, language assistance, transportation, financial support, and other services.
Full descriptions of the grants, including counties served, are available below.
| Organization Name | Grant Amount | Grant Description | Location | Counties Served |
| Amistad | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Kennebec, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln |
| Area Interfaith Outreach | $20,000 | To provide people in Knox County with food and energy assistance through four key basic needs programs: Food Assistance, Energy Assistance, Diaper Assistance, and Weekend Meals. | Rockland | Knox |
| Aroostook County Action Program | $25,000 | To provide security deposits to unhoused or housing insecure individuals and families in Aroostook County. | Presque Isle | Aroostook |
| Augusta Food Bank | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Augusta | Kennebec, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Waldo |
| Bangor Area Homeless Shelter | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Bangor | Piscataquis, Penobscot |
| Bath Housing Development Corporation | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Bath | Sagadahoc |
| Belfast Soup Kitchen | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Belfast | Waldo |
| Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine | $25,000 | To assist newly arrived youth in the Portland Clubhouse with meeting basic needs such as transportation, food, and language support. | Portland | Cumberland, Androscoggin, York |
| Catholic Charities Maine | $20,000 | To support the Maine SEARCH (Seek Elderly Alone, Renew Courage & Hope) Program, which pairs vulnerable older Mainers with a caring volunteer who provides individualized support. | Portland | Statewide |
| Center for a Green Future DBA Growing to Give | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Brunswick | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc |
| Central Maine Area Agency on Aging | $25,000 | To support services meeting the immediate basic needs of older adults experiencing poverty and/or who are at risk of eviction, homelessness, or unwanted institutionalization. | Augusta | Statewide |
| CHiP, Inc. | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Newcastle | Lincoln |
| Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust / Twin Villages Foodbank Farm | $20,000 | To provide general operating support to Twin Villages Foodbank Farm. | Damariscotta | Lincoln |
| Common Good Soup Kitchen Community | $12,500 | To support food-insecure households in Southwest Harbor via their food pantry and weekly food delivery box programs. | Southwest Harbor | Hancock |
| Community Care | $15,000 | To support Community Care’s Shaw House Street Outreach Program, which conducts outreach to locate youth experiencing homelessness and links them to vital basic need items including access to safe shelter, food, clothing, and essential support services. | Bangor | Hancock, Piscataquis, Penobscot |
| Community Compass | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Blue Hill | Hancock |
| Eastern Area Agency on Aging | $25,000 | To provide nutritious meals via community cafes and home delivery for low-income older adults, disabled adults, and caregivers in the counties of Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Washington counties. | Brewer | Hancock, Washington, Piscataquis, Penobscot |
| Elder Abuse Institute Of Maine | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Brunswick | Statewide |
| Ellsworth Free Medical Clinic | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Ellsworth | Statewide |
| Emmanuel Lutheran Episcopal Church – Bridging the Gap | $15,000 | To provide general operating support for the Bridging the Gap program. | Augusta | Kennebec |
| Family Planning Association of Maine | $15,000 | To provide personal care kits to women affected by substance use disorders and other challenging life situations. | Augusta | Statewide |
| First Congregational Church of Waterville, Maine / Waterville Area Essentials Closet | $15,000 | To support the operations of the Waterville Area Essentials Closet. | Waterville | Kennebec, Somerset |
| Footprints Food Pantry | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Kittery | York |
| Foundation for Portland Public Schools | $15,000 | To support the Annetta Weatherhead Fund, which provides flexible resources to meet the basic needs of Reiche School students and their families. | Portland | Cumberland |
| Frannie Peabody Center | $20,000 | To support the FRAN Fund Program, which provides clients with financial assistance to support basic needs not otherwise covered by other funding sources. | Portland | Statewide |
| Friends in Action | $12,000 | To provide general operating support. | Ellsworth | Hancock, Penobscot |
| Greater Portland Family Promise | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Cumberland |
| Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center | $20,000 | To support the iEnglish Project, which offers free instruction by qualified ESOL instructors at multiple locations and online to new immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. | Portland | Cumberland |
| H.O.M.E. Inc. | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Orland | Hancock, Washington |
| Hand in Hand, Mano en Mano | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Milbridge | Statewide, Hancock, Washington |
| Harrison Food Bank | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Harrison | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Oxford |
| Healthy Acadia | $15,000 | To support the Downeast Gleaning Initiative, which redistributes surplus food to food pantries, community meal sites, school programs, and other food security organizations across Hancock and Washington counties. | Ellsworth | Hancock, Washington |
| Healthy Island Project | $25,000 | To provide food security programs to older adults, children and families through multiple school-pantry sites, a backpack program, community pantries, FarmDrop and the Farmers Market. | Stonington | Hancock |
| Her Safety Net | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Lewiston | Androscoggin |
| Intercultural Community Center | $20,000 | To support the Family CARES Program, which provides resource navigation, wraparound services, and opportunities for social connection for New Mainers. | Westbrook | Cumberland |
| Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine | $15,000 | To support the purchase of diapers for the KJFS Diaper Pantry. | Portland | Cumberland, Sagadahoc, York |
| Knox County Homeless Coalition | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Rockland | Knox, Lincoln, Waldo |
| Lake Region Senior Service | $12,000 | To provide general operating support. | Bridgton | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Oxford, York |
| Legal Services for the Elderly | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Augusta | Statewide |
| Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Ellsworth | Hancock |
| Locker Project | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Cumberland |
| Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center | $25,000 | To provide essential health care to low-income Mainers to address immediate needs related to physical and mental health. | Bangor | Hancock, Washington, Aroostook, Penobscot |
| Maine Association For New Americans | $25,000 | To support MANA’s trauma-informed, multilingual and multicultural transportation program, which transports immigrants and other low-income people to non-emergency medical, mental health, food, and social service appointments. | Portland | Cumberland, Androscoggin, York |
| Maine Coast Fishermens Association | $25,000 | To support the Fishermen Feeding Mainers program, which buys fish from local fishermen, pays local processors to cut it, and donates it to Maine’s food insecure. | Brunswick | Statewide |
| Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Statewide |
| Maine Medical Center | $25,000 | To purchase food to be distributed through the Maine Medical Center Food Pantry, which primarily serves asylum seekers and their families. | Portland | Statewide |
| Maine Needs | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Statewide |
| MaineHealth – Healthy Community Coalition | $25,000 | To provide food and personal care products to low-income residents of Franklin County identified through local medical practices and HCC’s Mobile Health Unit and Community Health Worker program. | Farmington | Franklin |
| Mainely Teeth dba Mainely Smiles | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Statewide |
| MCH, Inc. | $15,000 | To support the Meals on Wheels program, which provides nutritious meals and regular personal communication to food-insecure, low-income older adults and adults with disabilities in Knox County. | Rockland | Knox |
| Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Brunswick | Statewide |
| Mid-Coast Health Net DBA The Knox Clinic | $20,000 | To support an increase in dental program operations from three to four days per week to better meet the demand for services from low-income families in Knox County. | Rockland | Knox |
| Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter | $25,000 | To support the Housing Stabilization and Eviction Prevention Program, which provides support services and financial assistance to housing insecure families so that they may remain stably housed. | Waterville | Kennebec, Somerset |
| Milestone Recovery | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Cumberland, York |
| Neighbors Driving Neighbors | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Mount Vernon | Kennebec |
| Neighbors Helping Neighbors Downeast | $6,000 | To provide general operating support. | East Machias | Washington |
| New Beginnings | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Lewiston | Kennebec, Androscoggin, Statewide, Franklin |
| New England Arab American Organization | $25,000 | To provide New Mainer families with case management and financial support to meet basic needs, to include rent and mortgage assistance and assistance toward food, utilities and/or transportation. | Portland | Kennebec, Cumberland, York |
| OHI | $15,000 | To support the efforts of the Brewer Area Food Pantry to serve local food-insecure residents and families. | Bangor | Penobscot |
| Penobscot Community Health Care | $25,000 | To support Helping Hands for Health Mini-Grants, an extension of the Theresa Bray Knowles Gaps in Care Fund, which covers critical items and services that can not funded through other sources for patients of 19 health care organizations. | Bangor | Statewide |
| Preble Street | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Statewide |
| Quality Housing Coalition | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Statewide |
| Rangeley Health and Wellness | $20,000 | To support the direct provision of food to individuals facing food insecurity in the Rangeley region. | Rangeley | Franklin, Oxford |
| Rockland District Nursing Association | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Rockland | Knox |
| Rural Community Action Ministry | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Leeds | Kennebec, Androscoggin, Oxford |
| Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Parish | $15,000 | To provide support for SHSD’s food pantry program. | Portland | Cumberland |
| SeniorsPlus | $25,000 | To assist older adults in navigating social, health and wellness services and accessing benefits that will help them meet their basic needs – to include help with rent, heat and food. | Lewiston | Androscoggin, Franklin, Oxford |
| Shalom House | $15,000 | To provide support for an emergency fund that low-income clients may access to meet their basic housing, health, transportation and other critical needs when other payment sources have been exhausted. | Portland | Cumberland, York |
| SKILLS Inc | $25,000 | To support housing and other basic needs expenses for low-income adults with disabilities in Somerset, Northern Kennebec, and Southern Penobscot counties. | Saint Albans | Kennebec, Penobscot, Somerset |
| Somali Bantu Community Association of Lewiston, Maine | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Lewiston | Cumberland, Androscoggin |
| Southern Maine Agency on Aging | $25,000 | To provide case management services for older adults and adults with disabilities in York and Cumberland counties, with the goal of increasing their access to knowledge, information, and resources and helping them to live independently for longer. | Biddeford | Cumberland, York |
| St Marys Regional Medical Center (St. Mary’s Nutrition Center) | $25,000 | To provide general operating support to St. Mary’s Nutrition Center. | Lewiston | Androscoggin |
| St. Martin de Porres Residence | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Lewiston | Androscoggin, Statewide |
| St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Portland | Cumberland |
| State Street Congregational Church | $11,500 | To support State Street Church’s Clothes Closet, which provides free clothing to Mainers in need. | Portland | Cumberland |
| Table of Plenty | $11,000 | To provide general operating support. | Berwick | York |
| Tedford Housing | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Brunswick | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Lincoln |
| The Root Cellar | $15,000 | To provide support for food distribution through its emergency food pantry and neighbor food shares program, as well as to support English language learning classes. | Lewiston | Cumberland, Androscoggin |
| Tripp Middle School | $5,000 | To support the school’s food pantry, which supplies food to students and families experiencing food insecurity on weekends, school vacations, and holidays. | Turner | Androscoggin |
| Veggies to Table | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Newcastle | Lincoln |
| Waterville Area Soup Kitchen | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Waterville | Kennebec, Somerset |
| Winslow Community Cupboard / Winslow Congregational Church, UCC | $15,000 | To support the Winslow Congregational Church’s Community Cupboard, which provides food to food-insecure people and families in 34 towns throughout Kennebec and Somerset counties. | Winslow | Kennebec, Somerset |
| YMCA Sanford-Springvale | $10,000 | To support the Y Community Little Pantry, which provides easily consumable foods in a low-barrier setting in downtown Sanford to unhoused and food insecure residents who may not be able to travel to further-away food pantries. | Sanford | York |
