By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

NORWAY – After 15 years of keeping up with the Oxford Hills Food Pantry’s rising food demands from the growing numbers of the needy, volunteer pantry director Lisa Jones has decided to retire.

Jones, who lives in Norway, said she plans to remain active with the pantry at the Christ Episcopal Church in Norway but wants to relinquish some of her duties.

“More than 10 years is a long time for someone to fill a directorship in any organization,” Jones said, but emphasized she will stay involved. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

On Oct. 1, Beth Rice of Paris will replace Jones, carrying on the mantle of managing the 24-year-old pantry, which passed from founder Nancy Sutton to Jones and now to Rice.

The pantry, which serves Oxford Hills, is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. It is staffed by more than 30 volunteers. Area churches largely sponsor the pantry, and local businesses, like Hannaford supermarket, also contribute.

During her tenure, Jones said she has seen a steady increase of people needing help filling their kitchen cupboards. Just in the last year or so, she said the average number of families dropping by the pantry per month doubled from about 30 to 60, sometimes reaching 70.

“It’s the economic times. We’ve lost all our industry over the years here,” she said. “The need is really great now in Oxford Hills as it is elsewhere in Maine, and it will increase in the upcoming winter.”

The pantry is really an emergency fallback, rather than a grocery supplement to those who hit rough patches in their lives, Jones explained.

“They know we’re here,” Jones said, describing the clients as young mothers, the disabled, the homeless, as well as those with jobs who cannot pay bills and eat at the same time.

Despite working at the pantry for 15 years, she is far from accustomed to poverty. “You never get used to seeing it,” she said.

Even though the pantry’s volunteer staff is making more trips to the store for food, donations are also up, Jones said, contributing to the strong community ethic. “We haven’t asked for donations for years,” she said.

Jones is an active volunteer in the area, also helping at Stephens Memorial Hospital. She said, “It is something within me that wants to help others, and when someone calls me to ask me for help, I cannot say no.”

Along with Jones, John Tucker, the pantry’s treasurer, is also leaving after volunteering for 15 years.

“It’s time for someone else to do it,” he said. “Even though I have enjoyed it, it’s time to move on.”

Rosalie Ketchum, who worked as a bookkeeper with C.N. Brown and is also a committed local volunteer, will replace Tucker.

New director Rice, of Paris, goes to the same church as Jones, which is how she heard of the position. Jones said she advertised exclusively in church newsletters and fliers. “I wanted someone who goes to church. Someone who has a conscience. Someone who is reliable and honest and who can run the pantry,” she said, which is like running a small business.

Rice, who works for her husband’s business, Pinckletink Chimney Service, said she decided she would make the five- to 10-hour commitment to the job because the issue of hunger particularly troubles her.

“I have always been concerned since I can remember,” she said, recounting something she heard at a Lutheran conference once. “For every breath you take, someone dies of hunger. That really affected me. I just decided it was time to do something if I could.”