Together. Everywhere. Every child.

Project Milk Carton · a 501(c)(3)

About 890 kids are reported missing in America every day

We read the public records, follow the money, and learn the law. Then we put it in plain words, so families, neighbors and the people who serve kids are empowered to act.

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It takes all of us

Highlights of people in the Circle.

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  • Partner story

    How we met Beds for Kids

    Walk into the Beds for Kids warehouse in Charlotte, and you see right away what a community can do when it pulls together.

    Read the story

  • Partner story

    How we met Quentin of D2C

    Some meetings feel like a gift. Our coffee with Quentin Williams of Dedication To Community (D2C) was one of them.

    Read the story

What we believe

Every child needs a circle. We empower the people in it.

Who we are

The number

About 890 children are reported missing every day in the United States.

In 2025, police added a missing child under 18 to the FBI's national list 323,767 times. That is about 887 a day. One child can be reported more than once.
Source: FBI, 2025 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics (2025).

Where do you want to go?

Three ways in.

A child in danger right now? Call 911.
Do you know something about a missing child? Call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678), the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Someone answers day and night.

Protect. Empower. Serve.

Who we empower.

We do not step into cases, and we are not a tip line. We put the public record into plain words and useful tools, then hand them to the people who can act.

Families Step-by-step guides for the first hour a child is missing, and a map of how the child-welfare system makes its decisions, with the law behind each step.
Communities The county map of children on NCMEC's public list, what to do right now, and the Circle: neighbors who know the faces close to home.
Organizations on the ground The groups touching children's lives every day get our research, data tools and public-records work, free, so their people can spend their time on kids.

Protect every child. Empower every family. Serve every community.

Why we do this work · 46 seconds

Watch

Why we do this work.

A short film on why Project Milk Carton exists, what we look for, and how one person with a phone can help.

From our desk

What we wrote lately.

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Seen from above, a circle of neighbors on a lawn at dusk, each with a hand reaching into the middle.

Get involved

Stand in the circle.

Protect. Empower. Serve. Your monthly gift keeps all three going, free for every family. Project Milk Carton is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so gifts are tax-deductible.

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