OAKFIELD – The staff at Nature’s Bounty Food Pantry is giving thanks that they had turkeys to hand out to needy families this Thanksgiving.

But that thanks is offset by the fact that someone once again burglarized the pantry and made off with more than $200 worth of food and beverages.

“It’s devastating,” Debbie Gray, who runs the pantry, said Wednesday, speaking of the burglary that took place sometime last Friday evening. “It’s definitely going to set us back. We can’t replace more than $200 worth of items just like that.”

Nature’s Bounty first opened its doors in the fall of 2004 and serves residents of Oakfield and surrounding towns.

The pantry is a member of the Good Shepherd Food Bank, and volunteers head to the Bangor area at least twice a month to restock their shelves. They also rely on grants and donations to help them assist needy families.

The pantry is now feeding about 1,700 people a month, according to Gray.

Last Saturday morning, staffers were returning home with a load of food when they discovered that someone had tampered with a deadbolt lock on an outside door to gain access to the building. The thief or thieves made off with approximately 12 packages of bacon, blocks of cheese and cases of soda.

Gray speculated Wednesday that the burglars may have been motivated by money. The pantry just received a $10,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation to purchase a vehicle to haul food.

Before they received the grant, volunteers were using a personal vehicle to transport the goods from Bangor back to Aroostook County.

“Maybe they thought that we had money in the building, where we just received a grant,” said Gray. “But we never keep money in the building.”

The stolen items were to be used to stock Christmas baskets and fill family cupboards in the near future.

Thankfully, said Gray, the pantry was not yet stocked with the turkeys they have been giving out to families for Thanksgiving dinner this week.

“We have been shopping and hauling food here for four days in preparation for Thanksgiving,” she explained. “But we hadn’t bought any turkeys yet, and I’m so glad. If we had, they’d have been gone.”

The pantry found itself in a similar situation two years ago. On Nov. 29, 2004, someone stole close to 200 pounds of meat from the organization after breaking into an outside freezer at the establishment’s former location.

The pantry had just successfully secured a 300-pound donation of meat from Tyson Foods, and workers spent nearly a week slicing and packaging the turkey, pot roast and ham to give away in Christmas baskets before it was stolen.

An investigation into the burglary by the Maine State Police is ongoing.

Anyone wishing to donate to Nature’s Bounty can mail donations to the organization at P.O. Box 102, Smyrna Mills 04780, or contact Gray at 521-4239.

Anyone with information about the break-in can call the Maine State Police at 532-5400.