The Sadie and Harry Davis Foundation, based in Fairfield, has awarded grants to 13 Maine organizations through its Children’s Health Small Grants Program. This year the foundation chose to prioritize the most urgent and essential needs of Maine children during the COVID-19 pandemic, including food, shelter and healthcare. The 13 awards total $116,240, according to a news release from Emilie Knight, director of Small Grants with the foundation.

The list of recipients and funded work:
• Bangor Region YMCA: Advancing Children’s Health Through Emergency, $10,000.
Funds will support the organization’s emergency childcare program, including healthy meals and physical activity, for 150-200 children of essential workers daily.

• Boothbay Region YMCA: Weekend & School Holiday Feeding Program, $10,000.
Funds will contribute to organization’s ability to meet the rapidly increasing demand for free, nutritious breakfasts and lunches provided to youth up to age 18 every Saturday and Sunday. The program is already serving 150 children each week and anticipates a two-fold increase as shutdown continues.

• Capital Kids (Boys & Girls Club Augusta): Outside the Box Nutrition Program Emergency Expansion, $8,240.
Funds will contribute to the purchase of better commercial kitchen equipment and a food transportation vehicle as the facility ramps up food production to meet growing needs for free daily food in the Augusta community.

• Consumers for Affordable Healthcare Foundation: Health Coverage for Families Responding to COVID-19, $10,000.
Funds will enhance the organization’s ability to assist families with children who are losing access to employer-base health coverage as a result of COVID-19 to apply and enroll in affordable coverage options.

• Freeport Community Services: Operating Support, $5,000.
Funds will help cover lost revenue from a closed thrift store retail operation that provides capital for community services, including diverse food access programs that serve many children and families such as a backpack program, food pantry, free lunches, and community gardens.

• Full Plates Full Potential: Full Plates Emergency Fund, $10,000.
Funds will support emergency food operations to feed Maine children while schools are closed.

• Jackson Food Pantry: Additional Funding to Support Increased Needs of Families Affected by COVID-19, $10,000.
Funds will bolster this food pantry’s budget to purchase more food from Good Shepard Food Bank and local farmers to meet the increasing needs of a growing number of food insecure residents.

• My Place Teen Center: Daily Mobile Food Pantry, $10,000.
Funds will support the Teen Center’s efforts to keep kids and teens in their community fed during the pandemic with more than 500 fresh dinners and 150-plus snacks delivered weekly throughout the Westbrook community.

• Regional School Unit #71 (Greater Bay Area Ministerium Food Cupboard): Strong Minds, Healthy Bodies, $5,000.
Funds will sustain preparation and delivery of nutritious foods to student homes, including breakfast and lunch three times per week and 125 boxes of essential dry goods and produce delivered on Fridays with bags of basic hygiene/oral health items.

• Sanford Springvale YMCA: Childcare for First Responders and Essential Staff, $10,000.
Funds will support continuation of childcare program for children of essential workers through pandemic.

• Shaw House: Shaw House — COVID-19 Response, $8,000.
Funds will bolster the operating budget to allow for strategic use of their facility to continue providing shelter for homeless youth during the pandemic. Separate floors and an alternative off-site location will make quarantine and social distancing possible.

• United Way of Aroostook: Feeding the Vulnerable, $10,000.
Funds will contribute to UWA’s current efforts to provide food via meal delivery to low-income children, serving approximately 500 children on an ongoing basis.

• YWCA Central Maine: YWCA Central Maine Food & Nutrition Program, $10,000.
Funds will contribute to increased demand for free meal and snack programs as YWCA is a pick-up site for free meals for families with children during COVID-19 shutdown.

For more information about the foundation, visit sadieandharrydavis.org.