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BARBARA WAAS used to be a book-keeper for a small brokerage firm. Since October she has been relying on the Holy Apostles soup kitchen for food. The Rev Elizabeth Maxwell, who presides there, first observed a steep increase in people looking for help a year ago. Her church is now feeding 1,250 people a day, more than ever before.

There are lots of new faces. Ninety-three percent of emergency food sites have seen an increase in first-time users of their services. According to the Food Bank for New York City, an estimated 1.3m New Yorkers now rely on soup kitchens (which provide hot meals) and food pantries (which give away food). The number of people having trouble paying for food has increased 60%, to 3.3m, since 2003.

New Yorkers with children are among the most vulnerable to food poverty. Almost half of all New York City households with children have difficulty affording enough food. A staggering one in five of the city's children, 397,000 small people, rely on soup kitchens—up 48% since 2004.

At a recent City Harvest mobile market in the Bronx, plenty of children queued up for free produce. City Harvest delivers “rescued” surplus food from restaurants, farmers and wholesalers to a network of 600 soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters, and says 62% of its distribution points saw an increase in visits in 2009.

Some food programmes are struggling to meet the growing need. In 2008 many ran out of food, and some were forced to turn people away or reduce their opening hours. Fortunately, 2009 was a little easier. The soaring demand at soup kitchens and food pantries last year was counterbalanced by increased participation in the food-stamps programme and a surge in funds to alleviate hunger via the federal recovery and farm bills, according to a recent report by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. This meant that fewer people had to be turned away last year. Some 1.6m New Yorkers were receiving food stamps.

That report had a title that was also a warning: “NYC Hunger Catastrophe Avoided (For Now)”. Holy Apostles has seen its donations fall. But the number of people needing emergency food is expected to grow in 2010, just as kitchens and pantries are again finding it harder to raise money for their services. A surprising number of New Yorkers are vulnerable: almost 20% would not be able to afford food if they lost their jobs. The Food Bank's main office is just steps away from some of the firms who were given federal bail-outs. Áine Duggan of the Food Bank says: “We're the only bank on Wall Street you can trust.”