AUBURN – A volunteer shortage is slowing the Good Shepherd Food-Bank’s efforts to get food to hungry people across Maine.

Some shifts once manned by 40 volunteer sorters – inspecting, marking and categorizing incoming food at the massive Auburn warehouse – now have as few as 10 volunteers, said Rick Small, the food bank’s executive director.

The cause: Good Shepherd stopped giving bags of food to eligible volunteers as a thank-you for their work.

“It was a huge difference,” Small said. “We knew it would fall off. But it was more than expected.”

In some cases, unsorted donations of food from Hannaford and other suppliers sit in their boxes longer than they once did. The decline has also made it tougher for the food bank to prepare for a fall and winter that many predict will be the worst in memory, due to high fuel costs.

Through its 600-plus agencies, the food bank distributes enough food each month to make about 1.5 million meals.

A plan begun in January to slash the amount that member agencies pay Good Shepherd for donated food – from 16 to 13 cents per pound – has continued. It was only meant to last for six weeks.

“The demand for food is the highest it’s been in recent years,” Small said. “We’re trying to gear up for the greater need that we are sure is going to come.”

The volunteer problem started earlier this summer when food bank leaders re-examined the long-standing policy of giving food to eligible volunteers.

Concerned that it could be misinterpreted as payment, the Good Shepherd board decided to halt the policy.

And lest anyone go hungry, the organization brought in an outside group to operate a food pantry, which services individuals and families, in a rear corner of the food bank.

Many of the first people to receive food from the pantry, which opened July 1, became volunteers.

Rather than getting their food after sorting for several hours, they came in, picked up a box of food and left, Small said.

Lynn Casavant, who manages the In His Name Food Pantry, said the demand on the pantry has been higher than expected. It has been a struggle keeping up.

Yet, anyone who volunteers to help her is quickly sent to the food bank.

“I have plenty of volunteers,” she said Monday. “Without the food bank, we don’t exist.”

The exact decline in volunteers is difficult to chart, since there was little advance scheduling, Small said. Volunteers merely showed up when their shifts began. Folks grew into the habit of working for four hours, collecting some food and going home.

Small believes new habits will be formed.

“We’re looking for people who want to volunteer for the sake of helping,” he said. He hopes to reach college and high school students who are required to complete some form of community service.

The food bank is planning to create a pair of night shifts for people who cannot help during the day. Ideally, new people would be willing to work once or twice a week on a regular basis.