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REIDSVILLE - The canned goods, meats and vegetables Edna Miller has received from the Red Cross food pantry have been a godsend. The 61-year-old Miller only recently became employed again after having been laid off.

"It really helped because she didn't have anything," said Miller's daughter-in-law, Mary Corum, who brought Miller to the Red Cross on Monday. "It's rough all over."

The food Miller would receive was among the few remaining items the Red Cross had in its pantry Monday. Staff members were preparing to put a sign up that afternoon notifying its clients that its shelves were bare.

The Red Cross distributes food to its clients three days a week but wasn't able to do so two days last week, said administrative assistant Angela Haskins. She said there were people waiting to pick up food bags a half-hour before the office opened Monday.

Haskins and Ada Wells, who works with the food pantry, blame the economic downtown and fewer food donations.

Other agencies are feeling the pinch as well.

Capt. John Sikes of the Salvation Army said food donations are "way down." The Salvation Army also operates a daily meals program in Eden. Normally, between 30 and 50 people eat there a day, he said. Those numbers have risen to between 50 and 85 people, Sikes said.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina serves as a supplemental food source for agencies such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. The organization, based in Winston-Salem, provides food to 390 agencies in an 18-county area, said Executive Director Nan Griswold.

Though food donations are down, Griswold said the need has increased. Second Harvest's food drives this summer that have not been as successful as she had hoped. "We are doing all we know," Griswold said.

Second Harvest also serves other Rockingham County organizations, including the Reidsville Outreach Center and The Lord's Pantry.

The organization has started a pilot program it hopes will get more food into counties across the state.

Griswold said for a low price, agencies will be able to buy food on top of what is already distributed to them. The Reidsville Outreach Center is the only Rockingham agency currently participating in the pilot program.

The money generated will be reinvested to buy more food, minus about $6,100 to cover the program's operating expenses, Griswold said. If the program goes well this year, Griswold said she hopes to open it up to more agencies.

"We are having to look for sources of food and be creative and innovative just like our partner agencies do," Griswold said.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross is again looking to the community for donations. Between 275 and 300 families a month are served by the food pantry. That number sometimes goes as high as 400, Wells said.

Haskins said families are given bags of meat, bread, vegetables and canned fruit. "We try to give them stuff they can actually have a meal with," she said.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com