More need help putting food on table

"When you look at having conducted these interviews when the economic expansion was still going full-out, and we still had more people turning to hunger relief charities than four years earlier - that's very concerning," says Martha Pickett, chief operating officer.

Ms. Pickett and others say they can't totally explain this trend, but attribute at least some of it to effects associated with welfare reform. Only 30 percent of emergency-food recipients receive food stamps, for instance, although many more are eligible. "When you're on welfare, your caseworker is going to make sure you have food stamps," says Sheila Zedlewski, director of the income and benefits policy center at the Urban Institute in Washington. "When you leave welfare, you're like other poor families: You have to do it on your own."

And many are finding that they can't quite make it on their own. "One in 10 of our neighbors requires food assistance on a normal day in central Florida," says Kathy Murphy of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. "When you couple that with 88,000 people affected [since Sept. 11 by layoffs or shortened work hours] I'm not sure where that's going to leave us."

Not all agencies are feeling the lack of donations, although most say there's significant uncertainty as they head into the holiday season. Pickett says that many donors mention that they gave to Sept. 11 relief efforts, but want to give to their community as well.

"When you analyze what happens in times of crisis, there may be a kind of pulling together where Americans give more generously," says Eugene Tempel, director of the Center on Philanthropy at the University of Indiana.

But, he adds, individuals' increased generosity can't make up for the fact that corporations and foundations, often responsible for the largest donations, typically give a fixed percentage of their profits. This year, those have plummeted. In addition, many corporations focused their giving on New York. "The tragedy in New York has been given so much attention that it's distracted people from local needs," Dr. Tempel says.

That's been the case at Working Persons' Food Pantry in Attleboro. Last year, it distributed 47,000 pounds of food. This year, it passed out 78,000 pounds just through October, and the number of people served has tripled. "Lately I've been beating my head against a wall," says Father Heath. When he asks for donations, "people respond: 'I gave to New York.' "

Every bit of food aid helps, says Joyce, a soft-spoken elderly woman who visits the Red Cross pantry in Waltham once a month. She lives off of her $395-a-month Social Security check. Housing uses up one-third of that, and Joyce has a hard time stretching the rest to pay utility and medical bills.

A lot of women at her senior-citizen housing complex face the same predicament, she says. "Our income stays static, and then the doctor bills come up."

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