EUGENE (AP) — The staff at FOOD for Lane County’s Dining Room feeds about 350 people four nights a week. Last year at this time it was 250.

So staff members were not surprised at a new survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that shows Oregon being the third-hungriest state in the nation. But the reasons are far from clear.

In addition to longer lines at the Eugene facility, requests for emergency food boxes are soaring, the Oregon Food Bank Network said Wednesday.

The USDA measures hunger rates by assessing food security, defined as access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.

Selected households were surveyed about things like skipping meals, scaling back portions, or running out of food.

Between 2005 and 2007, 12.4 percent of Oregon households described a lack of food security. Of those, nearly half, 5.5 percent of the state’s total households, reported very low food security, meaning household members changed eating patterns or ate less than usual because they were out of money for food.

Oregon’s high level of food insecurity is well-established.

The USDA surveys margin of error means the states No. 3 ranking could be off, but the difference between Oregon’s hunger rate of 5.5 percent and the U.S. average rate of 4.4 percent is statistically significant.

To Ed Prechel, these numbers are no surprise. As he bit into a cabbage wrap at the Dining Room, he explained he and his wife had fallen victim to variable-rate mortgages.

“We can’t afford groceries because everything goes to the house payments,” he said.

He added that his wife was laid off this month and the pair had to go to a food pantry so they wouldn’t go hungry.

She stayed in the car, Prechel said. “She was too embarrassed. She said, ‘I work hard. I shouldn’t have to be here.’”

Their monthly house payments that started at $1,500 were $2,675 this month.

When his wife worked she made just $2,600 each month. Right now, the couple are holding on to their home with help from their son.

“That’s pretty disheartening,” Prechel said.

Between spoonfuls of vegetable soup, he brought up the governments $700 billion bank bailout. “I don’t know why we can’t get any of this money,” he said.

Waiting for his turn for dinner, Wendell Lewis brought up the proposed $25 billion government bailout of the auto industry. “I’d take $2,500.”

Mark Edwards, a professor of sociology at Oregon State University who specializes in hunger issues, explained that this year’s economic downturn has affected the whole country, and it’s not clear why Oregonians are worse off than most.

According to the same USDA survey, Oregon was the hungriest state for four consecutive years in the early 2000s.

“It’s dogged us for a long time,” Edwards said.

“Edwards is waiting for more in-depth information about the 2007 survey results. Within a month, he’ll be able to analyze hunger rates with respect to variables like marital status, employment, number of kids per household, and urban vs. rural settings.

His previous research has found food insecurity in two-parent households, households with two incomes, and people with full-time work, all groups that traditionally don’t go hungry.

He noted that Oregon has a relatively high minimum wage and a relatively low cost of living.

The USDA data only go through 2007, meaning the effects of this year’s economic crisis have yet to be seen.

But the prospects for hungry Oregonians don’t look promising. On Wednesday, the Oregon Food Bank released data about food bank use between July 1 and Sept. 30 of this year. During that span, the agency reported a 13 percent increase from the same three-month period in 2007. In Eugene, the increase was 7 percent.

Lewis said he has recently encountered people he never expected in soup kitchens and food banks. “I’m always like. ‘You’re out here?’ “ he said. “They’re people you’d never imagine in such dire straights.”