The Newport County Neighborhood Food Project (NFP) works towards providing consistent food donations to the food pantry at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Newport, RI. It is a simple project of neighbors helping neighbors. Neighbors donate one bag of food every two months, and the neighborhood coordinator picks up the bags, leaves a new bag for the next collection, and then delivers all the bags to the food pantry the first Monday of every other month. This is an easy way to provide food donations to the pantry consistently with minimal work for the donors and the neighborhood coordinators delivering the food. The MLK center serves Newport County that includes Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Jamestown, Tiverton and Little Compton. There is a huge need and the MLK center provides a source of healthy food for so many families in the county.
Our Story
Our NFP started in December 2023 with one neighborhood. Karen McGovern launched the project because she and her husband, Julius Borges, had supported NFP as donors while living in Groton, MA. After they moved to RI, they thought it was a great project to start on Aquidneck Island. They canvased their Middletown neighborhood and signed up sixteen neighbors who are happy to donate one bag of food, every two months for such a worthy cause. In December 2025, our second neighborhood project got started by two neighbors who coordinate the Easton’s Point Neighborhood Food Group in Middletown. They also have sixteen neighbor donors. Our goal is to get even more neighborhood projects started in Newport County to further support the MLK center. We had some local press coverage that helps explain further the impact this project is having on the community during these times of great need: https://www.newportthisweek.com/articles/as-need-grows-food-assistance-becomes-neighborly-project/
MLK Center Food Pantry Partner
We have a great partnership with the MLK center and food pantry. The Center is so appreciative of what we bring to the pantry every two months. We support each other to make this project a success. The MLK Center does so much for the community to help with food insecurity. In addition to the food pantry, they provide breakfast and lunch to the community and home food delivery through their Food to Friends and Mobile Food Pantry.
Most Needed Items
While all nonperishable donations are greatly appreciated, the MLK pantry is always in need of: breakfast cereals, hearty soups. pasta sauces, side dishes.
Get Involved
The two neighborhoods in Middletown are doing a wonderful job donating to the food pantry on a regular basis. We need more! We would be thrilled to have more neighbors involved and supporting the MLK food pantry. This is a way to do so much good with little effort – it is just one bag of food every two months and has a significant impact on the food pantry and our community. It is so little work to make such a difference, and it is so rewarding. The food pantry appreciates these consistent donations more than they can express. Please consider starting a food project in your neighborhood!