When food and gas prices go up, area food pantries are among the first to feel the trend.

Local food banks are seeing a big increase in the number of people who need help putting food on the table. The trend doesn’t appear to be slowing either.

 “We are seeing quite a few people who haven’t been here before,” said Margaret McMullen, the coordinator of the Ecumenical Emergency Food Cupboard in Coos Bay.

McMullen said they are signing up more first-time clients than usual, many who have felt the financial crunch as food and gas prices have increased.

“A man said he had just been laid off from his job,” she said. “But he said, ‘We have to go on.’”

The increase so far hasn’t been more than the food pantry can handle. She said the food cupboard has been richly blessed with support from 13 churches and the surrounding neighborhood.

“They say it takes a community to raise a child,” she said. “It also takes a community to feed one.”

That statement is apparently ringing true for an escalating number of families in the community. People who are working poor — those who have jobs but still are unable to make ends meet — are in the growing numbers of those using food banks.

“One lady said she had to quit buying milk,” said North Bend First Presbyterian Church food pantry volunteer Toni Rempelos. “She said, ‘I have to buy juice for the kids.’”

Pantry supervisor Mary Jo Jamsgard said the food pantry has seen a steady increase of 10 to 15 clients per month and Wednesday was the busiest day yet with 38 people representing 101 family members. She anticipates the end of month calculation will make May another record month. More and bigger families are using the food pantry, but also people without family have started showing up.

“They seem to fall through the cracks,” Rempelos said. “There isn’t a lot of help for them.”

High food prices affect food banks and meal sites in another way. Many purchase extra food to supplement donations. Rempelos said the North Bend pantry tries to give people a choice in what they take home to their families, but with the cost of food going up, that has become increasingly difficult.

With food and financial donations down and prices up, T.H.E. House director Eve Stevens said she, too, is struggling to keep food on the table. The Coos Bay shelter and meal site provides temporary housing and meals for people without a place to stay.

“We’re full every night,” she said.

Clients of T.H.E. House battle more than just high food prices. Rising housing costs have meant a full house. Even if those who use the shelter find jobs, that is no guarantee of finding permanent homes, she said. Minimum wage is no longer enough. Stevens said one of the young men staying at the T.H.E. House has a job at a fast food restaurant but is struggling to find even a studio apartment.

“That’s getting scarier all the time,” Stevens said. “Especially when wages stay the same and everything else goes up.”