We were blown away by the show of support from nearly 100 people who supported our first Fill the Strand with snacks, diapers, & school supplies event in July.  During these busy days of summer we weren't sure what to expect, but the community showed up and helped us FILL THE STRAND!

THANK YOU to everyone who participated in this inaugural event and helping to make it such a success! 

We collected:

485 pounds of school supplies
300 pounds of snacks and food
more than $12,000 in funds

We have been able to distribute backpacks, school supplies and snacks to more than 139 children. We are happy to be sending kids back to school with the supplies they need to start their year off right. 

We are grateful to the amazing team at the Strand Theatre who continue to be wonderful community partners. We are grateful to our Marquee Sponsor, Maine State Credit Union, who provided financial support as well as volunteers who were a tremendous help and made the day fun.

Thanks to Staples and Walmart for their support of the event and being collection locations in the days leading up to the event. 

This event is a part of our summer appeal to raise support for our children-focused programs. Thanks to a matching gift from the Estate of Carole Brand everything we raised for this event will be matched-- bringing us closer to our goal of raising $50,000 by the end of August. 

Thank you. 

This summer we launched an appeal to help us raise $50,000 by August 31 to support our child-focused programs- Weekend Meals, After School Snacks, and Diapers Programs. All gifts will be matched thanks to a generous $50,000 gift from the Estate of Carole Brand. THANK YOU to everyone who has given to this appeal- thanks to your support we are almost there! 

With recent federal budget cuts for SNAP, Medicaid, and support for Maine’s Healthy Meals program, and a reduction in TEFAP and the elimination of the LPFA25 support for small local farms, AIO faces a perfect storm of increased demand and reduced supply. We want to be prepared for this “storm”.  In 2021 Feeding America estimated that 17.6% of the children in Knox County experienced food insecurity and numerous studies have shown that children who don’t have consistent, reliable access to fresh, healthy food exhibit lower cognitive skills and perform worse on tests. Conversely, when children are fed and feel food secure, school attendance and learning rates are significantly improved. 

There are a couple of ways for you to support this summer effort: 

• Consider an in-kind donation of kids snack foods and diapers.
• Make a donation online at aiofoodpantry.org

Our children’s programs serve:

• Weekend Meals - 600 elementary school children with 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 3-4 snacks each week. 150 middle and high schoolers with snacks and single person, microwavable meals
• Diapers - all sizes
• After-school snacks for 125 children/day in YMCA after school programming

Thanks to your help we’ll have a great start to the school year! 

Back in May, as summer approached we heard comments like "It's too bad the weekend meals program won't be continuing during the summer" and a lightbulb went off. Of course kids are hungry during the summer and in fact many kids experience significant growth spurts-- growth that requires healthy food to support. We set about coming up with a creative solution for continuing the program knowing that schools were closed. Sure enough...public libraries! What better place than these important community centers.  
We reached out to one, then two and eventually 5 libraries agreed to serve as distribution points for summer meals.

The Summer Weekend Meals Program started on June 27 with the distribution of 80 meal kits. Over the next few weeks, an additional library and one of the Maine health facilities signed on to serve as distribution points. The program was an important source of food for the children of Knox County and we are grateful for our community partners who helped make it possible. As summer comes to an end we now distribute about 120 kits per week. Originally planned for 8 weeks, the program continued for 10 weeks.  

With the success of this year's program we look forward to planning for next year, when we will start earlier and hope to expand the program's reach to include more kids in Knox County. 

We are incredibly grateful to our assembly and driver volunteers and the libraries!