Tracy Haynes had chicken noodle soup for breakfast yesterday. Her kitchen cabinets were pretty bare, save for four cans of assorted vegetables.

She went to the Lamb's Basket food pantry on Greendale Road in Henrico County for help.

"I don't come if I don't have to," she said. "I don't want to take it away from somebody else."

Haynes works 40 hours a week at McDonald's, and can eat there, but she is separated from her husband and finds making ends meet harder these days. Rising gas and food prices don't help.

Hers is not a rare story, according to officials at the Central Virginia Foodbank.

This year through March 26, the Central Virginia Foodbank has provided 1,912,331 pounds of food. That is 32,496 pounds, or 1.7 percent, more than during the same period last year. Each pound of food is equivalent to a meal.

The food mostly goes to pantries, senior centers, soup kitchens and children's groups.

The food bank relied on financial donations to buy nearly $75,000 in food to keep up with the increased demand, said Patricia S. Morris, the food bank's chief development officer.

"I really think it's because of the economy right now, because everything is coming to a head and going downhill," said Betty Shumaker, the volunteer director for Lamb's Basket, which gets food from the food bank and community donations. "Sometimes there's just too much month and not enough paycheck."

The Central Virginia Foodbank was founded in 1980 and serves five cities and 31 counties in the region. Last year, it distributed 12.6 million pounds of food to needy families and food pantries.

The prior year, the amount was 12.9 million pounds of food, the highest amount in four years.

When times are tough, the food bank gets hit on several fronts, Foodbank CEO Fay G. Lohr said.

Food donations drop and people who typically would contribute small amounts of money hold on to their cash.

"There's less food out there because everybody is cutting back," Lohr said.

In the greater Richmond area, there were 25,404 unemployed workers in February, up from 20,229 a year ago, according to numbers released this week by the Virginia Employment Commission.

Nationally, for the week that ended March 29, the number of initial unemployment insurance claims was 407,000.

That brought the total claims to the highest level since July 2004, according to Department of Labor data released yesterday.

One reason for the national rise in jobless claims may be that the manufacturing sector tends to furlough employees near holidays and Easter came in March, Virginia Employment Commission chief economist William F. Mezger.

It could also mean that employers with recession fears are wary of adding to their payroll, he said. While it has been a mild winter, construction and outdoor employment also tend to fall this time of year. That means layoffs and furloughs.

Losing a job is often a reason people give when they call the food bank looking for assistance, volunteer Claudia Gregg said. A sick child needing medicine, rising fuel and food prices or separation from a partner all bring people in.

"When things get a little bit tighter, you have people who are marginal workers and some . . . drop through the cracks," Mezger said.
Contact Emily C. Dooley at (804) 649-6016 or edooley@timesdispatch.com.