The shelves were nearly bare this month when Framingham resident Jenny Marte, a mother of four teenagers, entered the Salvation Army in Framingham where she occasionally gets food to help feed her family.
Marte stays busy every day, working jobs at a local Dunkin’ Donuts and at the Framingham-based company DCA, Inc. She is also a full-time student at Massachusetts Bay Community College, so she can eventually earn a master’s in social working.
But she said that despite working two jobs, it is difficult to earn enough money to pay for all of her bills and feed her family, “especially when you have teenagers that eat like horses. They are hungry and the food needs to be healthy.”
“Sometimes you need that little push, that extra little help,” she said.
Food pantries in the region are dealing with the increased demand during hard times.
Framingham Salvation Army Co-Captain Lynnann Rivers said that the food pantry has been able to give food to every person and family that comes in, but it has been a struggle.
She said that the pantry has given out 40 percent more food over the past year than the year before.
Framingham Salvation Army Co-Captain Walter Rivers added, “It’s difficult meeting the needs of people, but we do the best we can.”
During her early October visit to the food pantry, Marte was not shopping for herself, but was helping an elderly friend who can no longer work or get to the food pantry by herself.
“These days everybody is struggling in this economy,” said Marte.
According to the most up-to-date study from Feeding America, a nationwide hunger-relief charity, 12.3 percent of the state’s population in 2010 experienced worries about food. That total was up from 11.2 percent in 2009.
Greater Boston Food Bank President and CEO Catherine D’Amato said those numbers have continued to grow since.
The Greater Boston Food Bank supplies food to 550 member agencies from 190 cities and towns across nine Massachusetts counties. The food bank has helped feed 550,000 people during the past year.
D’Amato said that since 2006, before the recession began, there has been a 23 percent increase in food assistance demands.
“You are seeing families that are underemployed or unemployed, working families that aren’t making it,” she said. “The demand has shifted significantly, more so since the recession.”
The Daily Bread Food Pantry in Milford receives around 50 to 60 percent of its food from the Greater Boston Food Bank, and relies on donors for the remaining amount. Pantry Director John DeAngelo said the pantry is giving food to 15 percent more people this year than last.
He said that before the 2008 recession, around 780 people used the food pantry each month. Today, more than 1,000 are doing so, he said.
“It’s tough for people that are in a prolonged state of tough financial times and have increased their needs. We don’t see a recovery in sight,” said DeAngelo.
He said that despite giving out record amounts of food, the Milford community has made it possible to feed everyone who comes in.
The Holliston Pantry Shelf began limiting the amount of certain products in low supply to people coming in.
Pantry President Carl Damigella said around six months ago, 70 people used the pantry per week on average. He said that number is now around 100 people per week. “It keeps growing and growing,” he said.
At the Medway Village Food Pantry four years ago, there were only 20 to 30 people coming in each week, said pantry office director Sandy Wilson. But today, it is not uncommon to see more than a 100 people come in.
D’Amato said the Greater Boston Food Bank will distribute 40 million pounds of food this year.
She said that since the food bank first opened in 1981, the demand for food had been steady. But over the past three years, the food bank has had to provide 30 percent more food, to accommodate everyone’s needs.
She said that while the demand for food has increased, prices have also gone up by 10 percent.
The food bank is privately funded and gets most of its food donated by private industries, but it also relies on donations from various government agencies.
Last year, around 19 percent of the food bank’s supply came from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Food Assistance Program. But after recent budget cuts, only 11 percent will come from that source next year.
The food bank also receives $11.5 million from Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program funds to help purchase food.
D’Amato said, “If everybody had a job and if everybody could feed their own families, then the world would be a good place. That’s not the case.”
Derek McLean can be reached at 508-634-7582 or dmclean@wickedlocal.com.