Local food pantries are seeing more people in need.

“There is an alarming demand for food assistance in the area,” said Samantha Haggerty, communications manager for the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

The food bank works with 13 food pantries in DeKalb County and gives away 22 million pounds of food per year to 13 different counties.

“Of our food pantries, they have reported a 20 percent increase in people that come to get food from last year,” Haggerty said.

Jeannette Misitano, volunteer food pantry coordinator at Bethlehem Feed My Sheep, has also seen a huge increase in the need for food assistance at her pantry.

“The number of people that have come in have tripled and quadrupled in a year,” Misitano said.

The Bethlehem Feed My Sheep Food Pantry feeds 900 to 1,800 families per month and is open twice a week.

Misitano said even with support from local businesses, the pantry still runs out of everything it needs each week, so donations are always welcome.

“Anything from anywhere is always appreciated here,” Misitano said.

The number of families that The Salvation Army feeds has also increased 2.3 percent from 2006 to 2007, said Stacey Canova, office assistant of The Salvation Army, DeKalb Area Food Pantry.

The Salvation Army fed, on average, 333 families per month in 2007, Canova said.

“From April 1 to April 7, I’ve served 104 families,” Canova said.

This is about one-third of the monthly average of people they feed, but this in just one week.

Canova said the pantry saw 21 new people last month and just under 10 percent of the people they saw were new.

“We always have new people coming to the pantry,” Canova said. “These are people who have never come to the pantry before or have not attended the pantry in over a year.”

Canova could not identify a specific reason for the increase in people.

“Whether it be the economy or some other circumstances in their life that are requiring them to come, there is an increase in people that are attending the food pantry,” Canova said.

The Salvation Army is looking for volunteers and donations of non-perishable food items and personal items.