MONROE - Food pantries in Monroe are feeling negative effects of a floundering economy.

The number of families using the Green County Inter-church Food Pantry and the mobile food pantry at St. Vincent dePaul have increased in recent months. Meanwhile, food and monetary donations to the inter-church pantry have decreased.

The inter-church pantry serves Green County families every Monday. At its busiest in the beginning of each month, the pantry was averaging 35 to 40 families per week until a few months ago, when the average climbed to 40 to 45 per week.

Co-coordinator Maynard Heins said there have been 58 to 60 families coming to the pantry a few times in the past few months.

"I haven't seen anything like an increase like that in the two years I've been here," Heins said. "Many have lost their jobs or are in transit between jobs."

In July and August of 2007, the inter-church pantry served 28 new families. In the same time in 2008, the pantry served 46.

The mobile food pantry, held the third Thursday of every month at St. Vincent dePaul, averages 175 families. About six months ago, the pantry served a record 178 families. In August, 211 families came to get food and supplies.

"We had more than we ordered for," co-coordinator Rita Koster said. "I'm worried the higher number will probably be the norm because there's fewer jobs out there.

"Word of mouth is our biggest contributor to more people coming."

The pantry receives its food and supplies from Catholic Charities in Madison, which buys it from Second Harvest.

Sue Palm with Catholic Charities coordinates deliveries to the group's seven pantries. She views surveys turned in after each pantry to determine how much to send to the next month's mobile pantry.

Families being served at each of the group's pantries, including the one in Darlington, have "been going up steadily the last few months," Palm said.

Palm sent two trucks to last Thursday's mobile pantry in Monroe for the first time. The pantry served 183 families, the second-most ever.

Whether the pantry will get two trucks every month will be a month-to-month decision, Palm said. If the pantry has more than 200 again, two trucks may be sent. Trucks are limited by weight to what they can carry to pantries.

If only one truck comes, it causes Koster to ration food to the families.

"We have to pare back a little bit," Koster said. "More families with the same amount of food means less variety and possibly less food for each family."

Families who use the mobile pantry are asked their zip code, as only families in Green County are allowed to get food.

Koster has no way of policing whether people are coming from other counties, or Illinois, to use the mobile pantry.

"When we set this up, we didn't want to police people coming through," Koster said. "I don't know if that's something we'll address now."

The inter-church pantry has an issue to address, declining monetary and food donations.

In August 2007, the pantry received $2,000 in donations. In August 2008, the pantry got $550, according to co-coordinator Mary Dietz, who handles the pantry's finances.

"Part of it is money strings are getting pretty tight," Dietz said.

Heins said food donations have been down in recent months, but food levels are not a major concern.

"We're just taking what we can through the government and community donations," Heins said. "So we don't have to purchase it ourselves."

Dietz said the pantry must purchase food when donations fall short. In July and August of 2007, the pantry bought $2,774 of food. In the same span of 2008, the pantry bought $2,746 of food.

Dietz agrees food donations are down.

"They usually taper off during the summer months, and once school starts, they tend to pick up," Dietz said. "It's taking longer to pick back up."