More residents are finding it harder to feed themselves

Nonprofits see uptick in number of people needing some help

In October, the center gave food to about 2,110 people compared to 1,967 a year ago, she said.

Eugene Kuppenheimer, 60, of Silver Spring said he had never been at a food bank before Monday when he walked into the Manna Food Center.

‘‘Sometimes I don’t have enough money for food,” said Kuppenheimer, a former federal employee who is on disability due to memory problems.

County Health and Human Services Director Uma Ahluwalia said the county is seeing more families needing assistance because of higher fuel prices and utility bills.

‘‘There’s more pressure on households,” Ahluwalia said. ‘‘People are having to make choices between paying utilities and gas and food costs. We have seen a significant increase in requests for assistance for utility bills. We’re seeing the same pressures as the food banks; we’re just seeing it in a different place.”

Those in need can receive the food assistance once a month from Manna, which provides two boxes of donated food weighing about 70 pounds — roughly enough to feed a family of three for about five days.

‘‘Hunger is a hidden problem no one talks about or thinks about, but it’s there,” Gabala said.

Most of the people who seek assistance from Manna are classified as ‘‘working poor,” she said.

Since they cannot cut their fixed expenses such as gasoline for going back and forth to work, their rent or mortgage, or their utility bills, they end up cutting their food budget, Gabala said.

‘‘When you have a limited income, you are limited where you can cut costs,” she said. ‘‘So at the end of the month or the beginning of the month, people don’t have enough money to put food on the table so they come to Manna.”

Daphne Jones, 28, of Rockville, a nursing assistant at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, said she gets help from Manna each month.

A single mother of two, Jones said she earns about $1,400 a month and pays $960 in rent plus her utility bills.

‘‘By the time I get done paying the bills, I don’t have money left for food,” she said.

Silver Spring’s Shepherd’s Table has seen more people at its soup kitchen, up from about 100 a day in September to about 130 a day this month, said Executive Director Jacki M. Coyle. But that has more to do with the weather getting colder, she said.

‘‘We are serving primarily people without homes, so they’re generally people not driving and not affected by increasing gas prices,” Coyle said. ‘‘There’s less of a fluctuation in the number of people we’re serving.”

Christopher P. Dake, director of Share Food Network in Hyattsville, said even in a wealthy community like Montgomery County, many people live on the edge financially.

‘‘Poverty is still on the rise and we need to do a better job reaching out to those people,” he said.

Many people who show up at Manna for food parcels ‘‘are surprised to find themselves there,” Gabala said. ‘‘People have this image of what hungry people look like and it’s not what you think.”

Manna expanded a program this year to provide ‘‘snack packs” to students who qualify for reduced or free lunch programs from seven to 15 schools, Gabala said.

The center also partners with businesses to provide healthy snacks for students. ‘‘Instead of being hungry, the kids arrive at school ready to learn,” Gabala said.

About a third of Manna’s food comes from food drives, supermarket donations and a federal food surplus program, Gabala said.

One of the biggest annual food drives of the year for Manna is done by the Boy Scouts of America. This year’s event is Saturday.

‘‘They usually collect more than 100,000 pounds of food,” she said.

To help

Manna Food Center, 614 Lofstrand Lane, Rockville. Call 301-424-1130.

Shepherd’s Table, 8210 Colonial Lane, Silver Spring. Call 301-585-6463.