Mail donations to: Wilton Area Food Pantry, P.O. Box 517, Wilton, ME 04294-0517 or drop off to staff volunteers at the Food Pantry from 10 a.m. to noon, Tuesday through Thursday, at the Wilton Methodist Church on Main Street.

WILTON — Preparing 150 Thanksgiving baskets for families served by local Food Pantry is posing a challenge this year.

Without a good buy on turkeys at the Good Shepherd Food-Bank, the Wilton Pantry is also looking for community help, Kitty McDonald, co-coordinator of the pantry, said.

The pantry provides roasting chickens to small families and turkeys to large families, as well as all the fixings. Some of those fixings and holiday food items will still be available at a reduced rate from the Good Shepherd Food-Bank, just not turkeys, she said.

It’s the community’s help that makes serving between 120 to 149 families a month a little easier. So far, the pantry has not had to cut back too much on the items filling the monthly boxed items given to the families . . . down the road may be a different story, she said.

Government commodities are way down. Rural food pantries already receive smaller portions of with food amounts determined by the number of people served.

One thing that has helped a lot this summer though are the generous donations given by local farmers who provide fresh garden vegetables for the pantry. It makes a big difference, she said.

There are also people who donate regularly. Some even make donations to the pantry in lieu of flowers at the time of a family death. The pantry also requests and receives $2,000 from the town during the annual town meeting.

One donor known only by his first name brings in liquid detergent every month. Pantry volunteers break the donations down into smaller quantities to provide some for more families.

Organizations such as the Lions Club help regularly and businesses such as Care and Comfort and Barclays helped fill the holiday baskets last year, she said.

Lions Club members go to Hannaford’s in Jay twice a week to secure items taken off their shelves for the pantry. They also help with commodity shipments, she said. Members and friends Bill Fletcher, Bill Groder, Ken Wiley, Jim Brooks, Nye Mosher, Vern McDonald and Alvin and Kitty McDonald recently helped with a food delivery.

Another volunteer effort for which pantry members are thankful, came from University of Maine at Farmington students Aubrey Hersom and Laura Dickey helped Nye Mosher, Lisa Small and McDonald paint the ceiling and walls of the pantry in September, she said.

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