Nurturing Community - but what does that even mean? Potato, Potahto?
As we head into the holiday season, from the parties to the presents to the cookies and the cheer, life can often feel a bit exhausting as we all wear many hats - party planner, gift shopper, decorator, magic maker, community helper, etc. As we discussed at our November event, community can feel needed this time of year, especially at the end of this election year. Often, though, the hodge-podge of gatherings filling up our calendars can be overwhelming - so here’s another event! - just kidding. Well, yes, it is another event, but if socializing feels too much this time of year, this event has a twist: to help a local nonprofit continue doing amazing things.
Community, getting involved, and giving back can feel different to everyone - and there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Just like “I say potato, you say potahto,” but more on that later. Having conversations, doing small acts to help one another, taking care of each other - nurturing community can have many meanings. Especially this time of year, nurturing your community can change from week to week, day to day. When 4 pm feels like 10 pm, often you can start to feel like a potato this time of year, and sometimes, for your own mental health, it’s best to lean into that potato. Other times, it feels good to attend a gathering, even if it’s just for an hour, to help you feel less alone - to laugh, learn something new, meet new friends, and hug old ones. These quotes, by poet and activist Andrea Gibson, eloquently capture the current climate and what we at held are feeling:
“I keep asking myself, ‘What is my job in this moment? What do I specifically have to offer?’ It’s empowering to ask those questions because no one’s job will be the same. …
My friend Oak, (great name, I know) used to say, ‘If we can’t imagine it, we can’t create it.’ Right now, I’m putting active energy into imagining what’s possible. What does a compassionate world look like? …
Never forget how alone we are not. The moss, the mountains, the redwood tree, the marigold, the mourning dove calling for her love’s return - are our allies. Every natural thing in this world is invested in the peace of this world. All that is good and gracious whispers, ‘We are with you.’”
- Andrea Gibson, poet and activist
For our last event of the year, we will be gathering at Orange Bike Brewing Company to reflect on what community means to us and how we can collectively maximize impact for The Locker Project, a local non-profit that connects food-insecure children in Maine with nourishing food, which *all event proceeds will go towards. Guests will hear from the founders of Orange Bike and Kathryn Sargent, the Executive Director of The Locker Project.
Below is a short Q&A with Kathryn:
Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to The Locker Project?
KS: I moved to Maine in 2015 to marry my Bowdoin boyfriend after about 30 years away from the state and each other. At the time, I was editing a quarterly journal on K-12 education reform based at the Harvard Kennedy School and thinking a lot about what kids need to thrive. Nourishment is at the top of that list—hungry kids have a much harder time succeeding in school, which can hold them back for the rest of their lives.
I was fortunate to discover the Locker Project shortly after I arrived and first became involved as a volunteer. After a few months, I joined the board of directors and then, in 2018, took over as executive director. It was a huge leap for me, professionally. I had mostly worked quietly from home while raising three kids, and this job is not only on-site but requires near-constant interaction with people--the board, the staff, volunteers, donors, local thought leaders, and members of the communities we serve. There is a lot of writing involved, which I had great preparation for--I apply for about 50 grants each year, put out a newsletter, and create social media content. Knowing that I can use these skills to connect kids with the food they need is incredibly rewarding. This fall, we're celebrating two major milestones--10 years as a nonprofit and 3 million pounds of food shared, which would just about fit in an Olympic-size swimming pool, if you can picture that.
The Locker Project started in 2011. Can you share more about the programming's journey over the last thirteen years?
KS: The seed was planted in 2011 when a kindergarten parent at Portland's East End Community School saw that many students in her daughter's class were sitting and waiting while their peers ate their morning snack. She began to bring in extra snacks and recruited community members to help. By 2014, when the Locker Project launched as a nonprofit, we were stocking school pantries with a range of healthy staples and providing classroom snacks. In 2017, we began to rescue fresh food from supermarkets and take it to community sites and schools so students and others could "shop" for the items they needed. We continued with school pantries and our fresh food events until 2020. When the schools shut down in March of that year, we were working on a project with the United Way and had a supply of sturdy bags. We immediately began packing them with staples and fresh food and bringing them to the school meal sites so that parents could get groceries along with the kids' meals. Our total food share nearly doubled over the previous year.
This year, we are again stocking school pantries, and we'll pack and share close to 30,000 bags in total; most of them will go home with elementary school students. Our bag programs have gone through several changes in response to shifts in community needs and partner feedback. Our purple bags of staples are now about 6.5 pounds of milk, rice, tuna, etc., because that is as much as the youngest students can carry. Our green bags of produce generally contain whole fresh fruits and vegetables from Good Shepherd Food Bank and local farms. We also have a family food box program, which enables case managers to provide staples and fresh food to their client families. Finally, we continue to host more than 300 fresh food events every year at schools and other locations that are convenient for families.
What is your focus this time of year, and how can the community help?
KS: We always welcome food drives. The list of the items we collect can be found here.
Throughout the year, we are looking for community members to volunteer or become donors and for local businesses who share our values to commit to an annual gift. You can direct your gift toward our programs in a district or at a specific school.
The end of the year is crunch time. We typically raise about one-third of our budget during November and December, which this year means $200,000 out of about $600,000. Two ways to provide financial contributions without breaking the bank are with small monthly donations, which you can set up at mainelockerproject.org/donate, and with employer match. Lots of local employers will match your donation, which doubles your support for nourishing kids and their families.
I would love to say that we are making strides against child hunger, but the numbers rose again in 2023. More than 6,000 kids in Greater Portland are at risk of going hungry at home. Our programs reach more than 2,500 of them, but it is not enough. Besides donating and volunteering, the community can help by spreading the word about Locker Project programs and about the prevalence of child hunger in our communities. The key message is that when children are well-nourished, the whole community benefits.
IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS
This will be the last substack of 2024. As we begin to plan out 2025 events, and in the wake of the election results, we wanted to share our goals for this upcoming year. For the past twelve months, we hosted events around intentions, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, play as an adult, sexual communication, the art of entertaining, perimenopause, and more. We hope to continue to expand on these topics and add more in the year to come. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge you, our community. We are so very grateful for your support.
Our 2025 goals
Lean more into nurturing the Portland, Maine community. We need this now more than ever. How can we foster deeper connections at our events? What do we need to do better before, during, and as a post-event follow-up so people can feel more included to share their most vulnerable selves? Dolly, as usual, said it best.
Diversity. We live in a bubble. Even typing this feels like we can’t say the right thing here, and talking about the “bubble” so often can almost excuse us from trying to build diversity. But we know we need to do better. We are always learning and reflecting on the feedback we receive from surveys and continue to seek diversity in our partners, speakers, and outreach in order to actively build a healthy community of diverse perspectives. These are not boxes to check but held’s ultimate mission.
Balance. When we formed held we wanted the topics to be a mix - some more serious than others to help reach a wider audience. We hope to continue to find balance in our event offerings with the goal of nourishing connection and having fun. The smiles and laughter from our choreographed dance to Ellie Goulding - more of that, please!
