NORWAY — The Oxford Hills Food Collaborative Market is closing its doors earlier than expected.

It will close at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 9, instead of the previously planned Friday, May 11.

“Due to the overwhelming response to the 50 percent off closing sale, our shelves are nearly bare,” Kristin Benedix, executive director of the Progress Center, said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

The closing date of May 9 also applies to the OHFC shares. Benedix said customers who have purchased shares will receive both of the current weekly share as well as their final share that day.

Benedix announced last week that the state of the economy, particularly in the Oxford Hills area, and the center’s programming needs were the deciding factors in closing down the four-year-old venture. The store also priced merchandise at 50 percent off at that time.

The collaborative started as a joint initiative of the Progress Center, a group of small family farms and Healthy Oxford Hills about four years ago. The 30-year-old Progress Center at 35 Cottage St. where the market is also located, is a nonprofit organization that provides services and teaches life skills to developmentally disabled adults in Norway.

The intent of the collaborative was to provide assistance to local farmers in the fields and deliver their produce and goods to individuals and families in and around the Oxford Hills region.

The three employees, including store manger Jessica Paradis, a 2004 Oxford Hills graduate and native of Norway, have been reassigned within the Progress Center programs, Benedix said.

For more information, call Jessica at 207- 743-8049, ext. 214.

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