“I think we’re all in trouble,” Cynthia Russell of Churches Touching Lives for Christ said Friday.

“We’re all in the same boat,” echoed Capt. Martha Burchett of the Salvation Army in Temple.

The issues are multiple:

n Food prices are up. In April alone, fruit and vegetable prices rose 2 percent, and cereal and baked goods increased by 1.4 percent, according to the federal government. Overall, food prices in April took the largest leap recorded since 1990, and they are 5 percent over the same month a year ago.

n Food is scarce for food banks and pantries, which in many cases must buy goods at retail to try to meet the demand, according to Russell and Burchett.

“We’re not able to get rice and we can’t get canned green beans or corn,” Russell said.

Marianne McWherter, a volunteer at Love of Christ Ministry Food Bank on one recent Thursday, said, “There’s a shortage of desserts, sweet breads and birthday cakes,” too.

“We haven’t had desserts in over three weeks and some clients are asking for birthday cakes for their kids, and we used to have them,” she said. “But, now the best I can do is a box of mix, but some of these people don’t have a stove or a way to cook it.”

n Fuel prices are up. The government reported in April that gasoline cost 20 percent more than in April 2007 nationwide. Fuel prices also make food more expensive.

“People are scrimping on food and medicine to be able to fill their tanks so they can go to work,” Ron Ratley, an LCFB volunteer, said.

n The need is up.

“The last time I looked, we had 600 new families (seeking help) since January,” Russell said. “That’s people we’ve never seen before, not transients, not street people.

“We have 10,700 files on clients, and I went back and put those from ’94, ’95 and ’96 in another place because they weren’t coming back,” she said. “Now, they are coming back. That tells me something. It tells me that people were doing OK for a while, and now they’re not doing OK.

“And, I’m not either, so I can understand their problem.”

Burchett said the situation is dire right now, and the agencies that help the needy aren’t in their “busy season” yet.

That season is summer, when children are out of school.

“Demand is up, and that’s the lowest time for food,” she said. “And it’s not a prime time for giving. When it’s toughest, we get the least.”

She said the Salvation Army is seeing between 30 and 40 new families each month this year - that is, families who have never before sought assistance.

“People need to eat, and with gas prices going up we have seen an increased amount of new families coming to get food each month,” Ratley said. “We had 61 new families along this month, and it’s only going to get worse.”

Postal workers did conduct their annual Letter Carriers Food Drive last Saturday, and they collected about 11,600 pounds of goods for CTLC, Love of Christ Ministry and Martha’s Kitchen and Shelter.

Representatives of those three agencies have issued an official letter of thanks to the letter carriers, “for a job well done and service to the community above and beyond the call of duty.”

Photojournalist Scott Gaulin contributed to this report.