The Merrimack Valley Food Bank will run out of food by the end of next month unless it steps up food collections, an official there said.
The Lowell-based organization, which supplies homeless shelters and soup kitchens in Greater Lawrence and throughout the region, is down almost 45 percent on food donations, while demand from the agencies it supplies is up by more than 60 percent, said Lisa Couturier, business development and fundraising coordinator.
As companies have laid off workers and cut employees' pay, more people have turned to social services for help feeding their families, an increase that has led to the diminished supply at the food bank.
"We're serving the working poor now,'' Couturier said "It's not just people who are out of work.''
Food drives are commonplace during the holidays, but they become scarce after the New Year, organizers of the food bank said. Couturier said she has been repeatedly calling businesses and community groups, trying to get them to collect food and do whatever they can to help.
Several have stepped up, from students at the University of Massachusetts Lowell to Webster Greene Antiques & Interiors in Methuen.
"Any one of us, if God forbid we lost our job, could be a paycheck away from having to go to the food bank," said Denis Webster-Greene of Webster-Greene Antiques & Interiors.
Ken Campbell, food coordinator at Lazarus House Ministries in Lawrence, said the Lawrence shelter is keeping up with replenishing the food that it's using, but the food bank is essential to local service groups.
"They are a wonderful source for us," Campbell said.
"We're able to use it, not only for distribution to families, but we also use it in our soup kitchen and our shelters."
Meanwhile, Webster-Greene held a fundraiser yesterday at his shop at 306 Broadway in Methuen.
He has another one scheduled for Feb. 27 at 3 p.m., when he'll teach people how to incorporate antiques into modern home decorating styles.
It costs $15 to register for the event. There will be an informal "road show" appraisal session for any items brought by attendees, and light refreshments.
All proceeds from the registration fees will be donated to the food bank, as will 10 percent of all the money from sales in the store this weekend and that weekend.
The snow date for the event on Feb. 27 is Feb. 28. Couturier said more seminars at the antique store are being planned.
Anyone wanting to donate to the food bank or learn more is asked to call 978-454-7272 or log onto mvfb.org.
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