OXFORD — Every year The Progress Center (TPC) is proud to celebrate each employee’s anniversary! However, this year marks a special anniversary for TPC’s longest consecutive employee.

May 11 marked the 22nd anniversary here at TPC for Liz Blaquiere, the Kitchen Program Manager. Since starting with TPC in 1999, Liz has created a long list of accomplishments and helped grow the TPC Community Kitchen to what it is today.

From the beginning Liz has held a continued spirit of determination and compassion for the work she has done and continues to do at TPC, especially when it comes to making sure the Oxford Hills community remains fed. In the mid 90’s Liz started her great work by volunteering her time at the Norway Town office with clients, going around and delivering meals to those in need.

Liz has continued to volunteer her time helping others in any way she can. Not only did she volunteer to deliver meals and become a Special Olympics coach, she has also volunteered at Bear Mountain Camp in Waterford, where clients enjoyed 2 weeks there camping, swimming, and enjoying the campfires!

After doing 5 years at the Karla Jacobson home, Liz transferred to the day program at TPC’s Norway location. There she began the amazing work she still passionately does today.

For 6 years, Liz worked to feed the Oxford Hills community meals out of the basement of a local church, feeding initially only forty people, but as word spread, the number of diners skyrocketed. In 2014, the Community Kitchen at 35 Cottage Street in Norway opened, giving her a larger space and more tools to be able to continue providing meals to those in need.

Liz has turned the TPC community kitchen into a flourishing program that offers so many different services to those in need or facing food insecurity. Her and her helpful staff have turned the community kitchen into six successful programs, the Monday food pantry, Tuesday Senior lunches, Thursdays Community Dinner, Summer Lunch Program, Feel Better Food, and the Level Up program.

Liz’s constant hard work and dedication to TPC led her to receive the 2017 Unsung hero award, a title her co-workers nominated her for.

This past summer was a difficult one for everyone, especially those who face food insecurities. Liz and her team worked tirelessly all summer to help feel those in and around Oxford Hills while following the CDC COVID-19 guidelines.

For 9 weeks the Progress Center’s Community Kitchen worked to distribute 4 meals on Monday and 6 meals on Wednesday. With this set distribution in mind, the Progress Center’s Community Kitchen hoped to keep the bellies of those in need full of food, until the next distribution date.

Over those 9 weeks, the Progress Center’s Community Kitchen team worked incredibly hard and served 10,700 breakfasts and lunches to those who were in need of healthy and sustainable meals during these troubling few months. To put the hard work, the TPC’s Community Kitchen team did into perspective, in 2019 the Community Kitchen put out 1,400 meals over an 8-week time frame.

Because of COVID-19 and all of the in-person restrictions and being conscious to keep up with the CDC guidelines, the TPC Community Kitchen has proudly installed a walk up window to help our community members receive food and keep both our kitchen staff and the public safe.

Over the last 22 years, Liz has been an incredible asset for TPC, helping to grow and change into the organization that it is today. Thank you Liz for your many years of dedication, compassion, and hard work!

To learn more about the Progress Center’s Community Kitchen, head to https://progresscentermaine.org/special-projects/community-kitchen/

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