FARMINGTON – More than 1,000 pounds of turkey, 300 pounds of potatoes and 600 pounds of apples are on Sueli Gaewsky’s shopping list.

The youth pastor at Old South Congregational Church was running through the list Thursday to make sure all the food items to fill 50 Thanksgiving baskets were gathered before Sunday. Her three youth groups and the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church group will gather for pizza and fill the baskets for delivery to the Care and Share Food Closet, she said.

Along with the 50 baskets, the youth group has purchased an extra 40 turkeys for the food closet, she added.

A sign-up list was posted this month at the food closet, said Carolyn McLaughlin, who organizes the volunteers for the closet. Last year more than 200 Thanksgiving baskets were given out, she said, and they expect at least that many this year.

While they just received a donation of 103 boxes of food from the Mallett and Cascade Brook schools food drive held last Friday, the food closet is seeing a definite rise in need, and she expects that supply will be gone quickly. Higher oil and gas prices, she suspects, are starting to reflect on the need, she added.

“There’s such a big need. Last week, nearly 100 families were served by the food closet when normally we serve 150 a month,” she said.

The food closet at the Fairbanks School is open two hours, five days a week, but there are always about 20 families lined up waiting to get in, she added. Food is distributed based on government poverty guidelines with families receiving food for three days.

“It’s not too late to make a donation for the Thanksgiving baskets,” she said. Checks made out to Share and Care Food Closet may be sent to: Mary O’Donal, treasurer, Care & Share Food Closet, 201 Barlen St., Farmington, ME 04938.

The food closet board has already decided that they cannot afford to make up Christmas baskets this year but will give extra food items to families who come in. An annual appeal sent out to local businesses and individuals has been slow in coming in this year, she added. It was sent six weeks ago but at this point, they have only received about half of what normally comes in.

Old South’s youth group became involved three years ago, Gaewsky’s said, when the church granted the youth $1,000 to use in community projects. While at a Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry meeting, she promised the youth would come up with 50 baskets that year. While buying turkeys at Wal-Mart, she was encouraged to apply for a grant there that netted another $500 of which the group used $400 for baskets for the next year. The church congregation also lends a hand bringing in cans of food and giving checks to help purchase the items that are not donated, she said.

The three church youth groups are mission-oriented, she said. They’ve developed that sense of giving at a young age, she said, “they get it, they really do.”

After this holiday, they’ll work on Operation Santa Claus and adopt a family for Christmas through the AWAP program. Last year, the children went shopping and bought gifts totaling more than $1,000.

In January, a group of 20 will spend a week or two in Honduras to help work on a school and water source in a small village.

The Sunday school has also collected enough this year to purchase a water buffalo through the Heifer Project, a gift that keeps giving, she said.