Jewish Family Service of Central New Jersey is struggling to keep up with demand as its food pantry faces the largest number of requests for assistance and emergency food packages in its history.

"We're doing our best to maintain the current level of giving, but it's getting very difficult to keep up with the demand," said JFS executive director Tom Beck.

Food banks and soup kitchens throughout the New York metropolitan region are facing similar shortages. According to the Food Bank of New York City, in the past three years food programs have seen a 24 percent increase in those seeking food assistance, but are receiving half as much federal aid as in 2004.

In Union County, the situation is particularly bad, according to Beck. "We've only been able to keep up with the demand because of the generosity of our donors and the special hunger drives," he said. With more and more clients — Jewish as well as non-Jewish — turning to the agency for aid, there is an urgent need for support from those who can afford to help.

The agency has been feeding an average of 180 people a month, including children, and has provided about 400 emergency food packages this year. "That's a record number, and it has kept climbing as the year has gone on," he said. The figures have more than doubled since 2004.

By the end of the summer the government grant that usually covers the agency's food costs through November had already been exhausted, and the agency was forced to seek other sources of funding.

"Though we're being told that the economy is booming, in certain sections it certainly isn't," said Beck. "People are facing increases in the cost of gas and utilities, taxes, and housing, and some of them have been hit by the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and they can't cover their costs."

Volunteer coordinator Terry Tainow and intake supervisor Fay Fisch said many of those coming for help have jobs but not enough income, and they are also seeing more people who are homeless or who have been forced to move in with friends or family.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency increased its funding to Union County slightly this year, Beck said, but not enough to meet the rising demand.

According to Meara Nigro, a spokesperson for the Community Foodbank of New Jersey in Hillside, the largest distributor of emergency food supplies in the state, Gov. Jon Corzine has promised that even as the state budget is cut, funding of food banks will be maintained. Last year and this one, the state allocated $4 million to the food banks.

"Because we don't deal with the clients directly, we haven't felt the pressure yet ourselves," Nigro said, "but I have been hearing anecdotally from a lot of agencies that they're having trouble. I think we're facing a pending recession."

That view was borne out in a recent article in The New York Times. Food bank directors from around the country described critical shortages; the crisis is compounded by a drop in supplies of excess farm products from the federal government, dwindling donations from food retailers due to tighter inventory control, and a soaring number of people — many of them fully employed — unable to buy enough food.

The situation facing Jewish food programs is particularly dire because sources of kosher donations are so limited.

At JFS, help has come in the form of an annual grant from ShopRite Supermarkets and now additional donations of food and money from its supporters and from volunteers with the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey and the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey.

Elaine Hochheiser of Scotch Plains, a JFS board member and longtime volunteer, has been coordinating efforts with those organizations and reaching out to synagogues. She said some have been very forthcoming with help, and others are already running their own food programs. "I just feel very strongly that people shouldn't lack for food," she said.

With a sigh of gratitude, she cited the appeal made by JCC president Mindy Goldberger and the work of the federation's Women's Campaign. Hochheiser pointed to volunteers such as Elyse Deutsch of Scotch Plains, who, she said, had collected around 10 bags of donated food.

In regard to the rising number of requests for help, Hochheiser said, "I've never seen it this bad. I don't know why it is, but I've been convinced for quite a while that things are far worse than they've been letting on. Even middle-class professional people are coming for help."

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