At a small yellow house in South Austin, volunteers pile in every morning.
They work to get food on the shelves before they open the doors, because they know the line of people needing help outside will be long.
"We're an emergency food pantry," said Bob Craddock, co-director of the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry at St. Ignatius Catholic Church. "We try to do things to help them get by."
The pantry has seen the need for help increase more than threefold this year. Last year volunteers served between 1,200 and 1,500 people a month. Last month, they served just under 6,000 people.
"Seems like the last eight to 10 months, the economy has gotten worse, so a lot of people have turned to us for some type of assistance like additional food," Craddock said. "A lot of them have jobs or part time jobs. It's just not enough to survive on."
Much of the food given out at pantries like St. Vincent de Paul comes from the Capital Area Food Bank, which supplies food to 350 groups in a 21-county area.
"The shelves are not empty," said Kerri Qunell, Vice President for Communication at the food bank. "It's just that the food is moving off the shelves at a faster pace than it ever has."
She says many agencies are seeing requests for help increase by an average of 60 percent. At the same time, donations to the food bank remain level with last year.
"A lot of the people they're serving right now are first timers," she says. "It's the first time they're ever in need of assistance. "
