FARMINGTON – The Care and Share Food Closet is open from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday at Fairbanks Union Church until space for the closet at the Fairbanks School Meeting House is ready.

Volunteers hoped to move back into the school meeting house last weekend, volunteer organizer Carolyn McLaughlin said Wednesday. Now it looks as though their return will be in April, she said.

The food closet leases space from the Fairbanks School Meeting Association but had to leave the space in December while crews worked on the building.

Expecting the food closet to be closed until the first of March, people who regularly visit the closet were given food for January and February along with December’s allocation. Supplies were given to 185 families, McLaughlin said in December. After word spread of the closing, the normal 150 families a month rose, with people lined up at their door, she said.

The closet is an emergency service that provides three to five days of food for every 30-day period.

Food supplies were also available at Fairbanks Union Church to help people in need.

“With the price of oil and gas, we expected people around the first of March to need more food so our regular volunteers are at the church each weekday,” McLaughlin said.

Some food items were moved and stored at Save-A-Lot in December. Volunteers are pre-packing boxes there and then bringing them to the church, she said.

McLaughlin has been receiving calls from people wanting to know when they could get food, and she wants people to know they can pick up food at the church now.

A crew from Taylor Made Homes has been working on the school building and needed the food closet space empty while it put in a new ceiling and completed electrical wiring and duct work.

The school project is expected to be completed in April. McLaughlin said the food closet will not return to its space until the work is finished.