Lauren St. Pierre of Augusta looks for Christmas decorations Wednesday at Project Fresh Start in Augusta. The volunteer-run nonprofit organization, which provides basic necessities and other goods to those who need them, is losing its warehouse at 352 Civic Center Drive and looking for a new location. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Project Fresh Start, a volunteer-run organization that provides donated home furnishings, kitchen appliances, dishes and other basic necessities to those who need them, is in need of a fresh start itself.

The nonprofit group, which last year helped more than 500 different families find anything from forks to couches, and is on pace to help even more this year, must move to a new location because the warehouse where it has been operating rent-free for several years will no longer be available after Dec. 1.

The organization is looking for about 3,000 square feet of free or affordable space in or near Augusta so it can continue helping those who might go without were it not for the items donated to Project Fresh Start, where 22 volunteers work to pass items to people who need them.

Sue Gayne, the program’s director, said the need for the items is greater than ever as people struggle with high prices.

Program Director Sue Gayne stands Wednesday behind a sign on the door at Project Fresh Start in Augusta. The volunteer-run nonprofit organization, which provides basic necessities and other goods to those who need them, is losing its warehouse at 352 Civic Center Drive and looking for a new location. “You need to know someone cares,” Gayne says. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“We have people who come in and say: ‘I’ve been living in my car. I don’t even have a fork,'” volunteer Sharon Curtis said Wednesday, while a family loaded a cart with home furnishings, kitchen goods and other items. “These are basic needs. That’s what they’re looking for. A lot of bedding, blankets, things to help them keep warm, a pot, the basics. And it’s across the spectrum. You see an array of life circumstances that bring people here.”

Project Fresh Start, so named for its goal of giving people a chance to start anew, such as a single mother going through a divorce, or immigrants who are new to this country and establishing households, has operated out of an NRF Distributors warehouse, offered by NRF President Norman Pomerleau, since 2017.

The organization first occupied two rooms, then expanded into about 2,700 square feet.

The rest of the warehouse was used by NRF to store its flooring. Now, the company no longer needs the warehouse and plans to lease it to another company, so Project Fresh Start must move.

Gayne said having the warehouse space rent-free for so many years was a genuine gift from Pomerleau, who also donates many items to Project Fresh Start.

While finding other free space would be ideal, the organization is prepared to rent affordable space. Anyone with space to offer, or with ideas or looking to make a donation, should contact Project Fresh Start at 207-530-6142.

The organization is in the midst of a special holiday giveaway, offering customers holiday decorations and gently used toys.

The organization also has many books to help encourage literacy.

Gayne said that when children eye a toy in the toy section at Project Fresh Start, “the answer is always yes, unless their parents say no.”

Volunteer Sharon Curtis answers questions during an interview Wednesday at Project Fresh Start in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Gayne said for now, the organization is looking to give away as much as it can, and will put what remains into storage after its location at 352 Civic Center Drive closes two days after Thanksgiving.

Gayne said many of the people whom Project Fresh Start helps are working, but might have had some bad breaks, such as an illness or automobile issues.

Curtis said she began volunteering at Project Fresh Start about 2 1/2 years ago, when she stopped by to donate something, looked around and decided to become a volunteer. The retiree said she could have used such an organization herself when she, in the 1970s, was a single mother going to nursing school “with young children and with no resources.”

“You need to know someone cares,” she said.