Grant funds go to 43 organizations working to help Mainers in all 16 counties
From 2019, a nutrition educator and volunteers at grantee Healthy Community Coalition of Franklin County distribute free produce grown at one of its community gardens.
Portland – The John T. Gorman Foundation has awarded $700,000 to 43 nonprofits throughout Maine that are working to support vulnerable Mainers. Awarded through the Foundation’s annual Direct Services Grant Program, the grants will help address basic needs, such as food security, housing, and access to health care.
“The challenges facing our most disadvantaged neighbors have not gone away during the coronavirus pandemic; in fact, they have worsened, and many more people are now in need,” said John T. Gorman Foundation Program Associate Lauralee Raymond, who manages the program. “The Foundation is privileged to support the efforts of our nonprofit partners to meet the rising demand for assistance. We know these funds will be used quickly and effectively to help Mainers during this very difficult time.”
In addition to this Direct Service Grant round – which primarily focuses on the needs of children, youth, and families – the Foundation awarded $400,000 in grants earlier this year targeted specifically toward meeting the direct service needs of seniors. Funding is being used by 17 organizations across the state to provide seniors with food assistance, transportation, home repair and companionship. For a list of these grants, go here.
John T. Gorman, known as Tom, was a grandson of L.L. Bean and established the Foundation in 1995 to help disadvantaged Mainers. In recent years, the independent, statewide Foundation has moved to focus strategically on four key areas: improving educational achievement for children; promoting successful transitions to adulthood for vulnerable older youth; helping struggling parents to support their families and enabling low-income seniors to remain in their homes as long as possible.
For more information about the John T. Gorman Foundation, visit www.jtgfoundation.org.
A list of grants is below.
| Organization (City/Town) | Grant Amount | Description | Counties Served |
| Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine, Inc. (Bangor) | $8,000 | To support economically disadvantaged kinship families through emergency financial assistance specific to food, heating and utilities assistance, and the provision of beds or cribs. | Statewide |
| Amistad (Portland) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| Area Interfaith Outreach (Rockland) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Knox |
| Augusta Food Bank (Augusta) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Kennebec |
| Catholic Charities Maine (Portland) | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Statewide |
| Catholic Charities Maine (Portland) | $25,000 | To support Cooking for Community, which pays local restaurants to cook easy-to-reheat meals using primarily locally sourced ingredients that are then distributed to food-insecure Mainers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. | Cumberland, Sagadahoc |
| Falmouth Food Pantry (Falmouth) | $9,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| The Gathering Place (Brunswick) | $5,000 | To support an emergency overnight shelter in Brunswick that is open to homeless and housing insecure people when temperatures are dangerously low. | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc |
| H.O.M.E. Inc. (Orland) | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Hancock, Washington |
| Healthy Acadia (Ellsworth) | $25,000 | To support the Downeast Gleaning Initiative, which harvests surplus food that would otherwise go to waste and redistributes it to food pantries and other food security organizations across Hancock and Washington counties. | Hancock, Washington |
| Hope Acts (Portland) | $20,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| Food AND Medicine, Jobs with Justice Education Fund (Brewer) | $15,000 | To provide food and volunteer support to Bangor area food pantries, along with food delivery and support to low-income and house-bound community members during the COVID-19 pandemic. | Penobscot |
| Knox County Homeless Coalition (Rockland) | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Knox, Lincoln, Waldo |
| Lake Region Senior Service (Bridgton) | $10,000 | To support a volunteer-based transportation service providing rides to medical appointments for individuals without other transportation options. | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Oxford, York |
| Locker Project (Portland) | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| Maine Seacoast Mission (Bar Harbor) | $25,000 | To provide families impacted by COVID-19 in Washington and eastern Hancock counties with expanded food offerings and connections to community basic needs resources. | Hancock, Washington |
| MaineGeneral Medical Center (Augusta) | $25,000 | To provide vulnerable patients in central Maine with emergency food bags, meal vouchers, transportation vouchers, and materials that share available community resources. | Kennebec, Somerset |
| MaineHealth – Healthy Community Coalition of Franklin County (Farmington) | $25,000 | To provide emergency food bags to low-income, food-insecure residents in Franklin County through visits to medical practices, a mobile health unit, and two community programming sites. | Franklin |
| MaineHealth Care At Home (Saco) | $25,000 | To support expanded access to essential health care by deploying a platform of telehealth tools that can support urgent patient needs in the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. | Statewide |
| MCH, Inc. (Rockland) | $20,000 | To support the Meals on Wheels – Home to ME program, which provides nutritious meals, daily communication, and practical living supports to low-income seniors and adult with disabilities in Knox County. | Knox |
| Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program (Brunswick) | $20,000 | To help sustain eight food programs and enable the rescue of an additional 100,000 pounds of food from new suppliers. | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Lincoln |
| Midcoast Community Alliance (Bath) | $10,000 | To support critical outreach services for at-risk, homeless and/or unaccompanied youth in Sagadahoc County, Brunswick and Harpswell. | Cumberland, Sagadahoc |
| Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter (Waterville) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Statewide |
| Milestone Foundation (Portland) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| My Place Teen Center (Westbrook) | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| Northern Lighthouse Inc (Presque Isle) | $20,000 | To provide case management services to homeless youth in Aroostook County, including connecting youth with available housing, mental health services, employment supports, safe family reunification and applying for social service benefits. | Aroostook |
| OHI (Bangor) | $15,000 | To support the efforts of the Brewer Area Food Pantry to serve local food-insecure residents and families. | Penobscot |
| Penobscot Community Health Care (Bangor) | $15,000 | To support the basic communication needs of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in Penobscot County via the provision of cell phone devices and unlimited voice, text and data plans. | Penobscot |
| Piscataquis Regional Food Center (Dover- Foxcroft) | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Piscataquis, Penobscot |
| Portland Community Health Center (South Portland) | $25,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| Portland Public Library (Portland) | $25,000 | To support Portland Public Library’s Social Worker in Residence, who works to connect the library’s most vulnerable low-income patrons to social services and basic need supports. | Cumberland |
| River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition (Rumford) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Oxford |
| Rural Community Action Ministry (Leeds) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Kennebec, Androscoggin, Oxford |
| Salvation Army (Portland) | $5,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland |
| Shalom House (Portland) | $10,000 | 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. | Cumberland, York |
| Spurwink Services (Portland) | $25,000 | To provide support for The Bridge Fund, 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. | Cumberland |
| Saint Andre Home (Biddeford) | $15,000 | To support the CourageLIVES Outreach Program, which provides outpatient treatment and support services to survivors who have experienced human trafficking and exploitation, domestic violence and/or sexual assault. | Statewide |
| St. Martin de Porres Residence (Lewiston) | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Androscoggin, Statewide |
| The Progress Center (Oxford) | $15,000 | To provide general operating support. | Cumberland, Androscoggin, Franklin, Oxford |
| The Root Cellar (Lewiston) | $25,000 | To support efforts to address the food insecurity of families in the Tree Streets neighborhood of Lewiston and the Bayside neighborhood of Portland during the COVID-19 pandemic. | Cumberland, Androscoggin |
| Trinity Jubilee Center (Lewiston) | $10,000 | To provide general operating support. | Androscoggin |
| Unitarian Universalist Association (Sanford) | $8,000 | To provide support for the purchase of essential household and hygiene items for people in need. | York |
| York Hospital (York) | $15,000 | To support the Bridges Program, which provides home delivery of meals, prescriptions, and/or groceries to seniors in York County, along with offering transportation and companionship services to increase access to care and decrease social isolation. | York |
