He doesn't see it at his job at the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service - not in the numbers of people coming in for free meals or the number of grocery bags going out to those eligible for free food.

"There are jobs being created, but I think the catch-up takes longer than they expect," said Moran, IFC's executive director.

"I worry that if people think that's true the people we work with are going to be left further behind."

And the IFC is working with more people these days.

At the end of February, 2,777 households in Chapel Hill and Carrboro were eligible for food-pantry visits every month. That was a 35 percent increase from 2,051 households a year earlier.

Meals served at the IFC's Community Kitchen, meanwhile, topped 90,000 last fiscal year, up from 87,588 the previous fiscal year.

And while the kitchen numbers have dipped slightly in recent months, Moran doesn't take much comfort in that. Many visitors to the kitchen on Rosemary Street work and use the free meals to stretch paychecks. Fewer visitors may just reflect fewer people working nearby, he said.

Across the Triangle and rest of North Carolina, the numbers are similar. With record unemployment across the state, hunger agencies are strapped.

"We're just trying to keep up," said Peter Werbicki, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. "We have not seen any of that ease up at all at this point. ... It's been very difficult to keep up with it all."

The food bank saw its requests for food rise last year by 30 to 60 percent in the 34 counties it serves. That need mirrors national and statewide trends. More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest rate since tracking began in 1995, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. That's about 49 million people in the country.

The need is leading more families to seek assistance. The number of households in the state that rely on food stamps has increased 45 percent over the last two years. In February, 1.31 million people - more than one in seven North Carolinians - benefited from the assistance.

"We're seeing heads of households and people who have mortgages. It's a new poor," said Jill Staton Bullard, chief executive officer and co-founder of Raleigh's Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. "The new face of hunger is really an important thing to understand."

In February, a decade-high 129,589 people in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston county benefitted from food assistance, according to the Jordan Institute for Families at UNC. That's up 19.7 percent from last year, the biggest year-to-year jump since 2002.

Food banks are also seeking aid through the federal government's emergency food assistance program. Food donations at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina were up 12 percent last year, but Werbicki said most of that is from the federal stimulus package, which won't be around forever.

In Hillsborough, Orange Congregations in Mission's overall donations are down from last year, according to Kay Stagner, manager of client services. But donations are still coming in. In 2009, the group raised $45,216 after the Stewards Fund issued a challenge to raise $10,000 to receive matching funds.

"So many people were being laid off, those who still had jobs seemed to feel obligated to help those who had lost their jobs," she said.