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GREENSBORO - This is another story about how the economy is crushing everyday people, as told through food stamps.

In December in Guilford County, a time when families go on vacation for the holidays and meet for meals, nearly 50 percent more people sought help from the county-managed federal food assistance program than in December 2007.

And the county's increase parallels a sharp increase in demand statewide, according to Sherry Bradsher, director of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

"In 22 years in this business, I've never seen anything like it," she said, adding that in September roughly 18,000 more people applied for food assistance than in the same month in 2007.

"That's the startling figure to me," she said.

All social services programs across the state, she said, are fielding requests for help at levels not seen in recent memory. Many are coming from people who have never sought emergency help.

Like Sheletha Parker, who Thursday drove to the county's social services offices on Maple Street for help with food. She had been there before - the 33-year-old single mother of three has children on Medicaid insurance - but she pays bills, rent and other expenses through her third-shift LabCorp job.

Until last month.

"For the whole month of December, our hours were cut," she said moments after filling out an application for food assistance.

Five dollars is a lot of money to her, she said, though she resisted going to the county's Department of Social Services for help with food.

"It took me a couple of days," she said. "There's always somebody out there who needs more than me."

Louise Matthews may end up processing her application.

In 18 years working for the county, she has never seen so many forms cross her desk, Matthews said.

In December, the county processed 2,800 food assistance applications. In 2007, there were 1,922 such applications.

The increase last month was unusual, county staff said, because county's offices shut down for several days each December and applicants are more likely to stay home.

Huge lines are likely in January, too, because more applications for food assistance are expected this winter than any in the previous decade. And many people are asking for the first time.

"It's all walks of life, it's all situations," Matthews said. "It's really bad."

On a typical busy day before the national economic crisis hit, Matthews processed 25 to 40 emergency food applications.

Of the 125 applications her office processed one day last week, 75 qualified for emergency food assistance. Those emergency recipients get help within a week. Others go into a longer process that takes several weeks.

"There are a lot more applications from people that thought they'd never be here," said Pat McGee, Matthews' supervisor. "They're just moving here, looking for work, and not finding anything."

As the demand grows, Guilford County taxpayers feel it through the salaries of caseworkers who help distribute state and federal funds to the needy. Federal funds cover the benefits, but the county pays 50 percent of the workers' salaries.

And staff there sometimes works overtime, even weekends, to handle the requests.

"I don't know that it's ever been this bad," said McGee, who has worked in social services for 23 years.

And December had the highest number of food stamp applications in a single month since 2006.

What might happen next is tough for anyone to say.

"It's just been recently that it's spiked so much," said Denise Hill, interim director of economic services for DSS, who oversees food stamps, child care, Medicaid and other services for the needy. "But it doesn't look like it's going to get better."

For Parker and her three children, though, just a little would make it better.

"If they give me $50, that would help," she said, "so we can make it through this month."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com