The Orange County Rescue Mission says it is facing a serious drop in food to distribute to local families in need and is seeking emergency donations.

A decline in donations of canned and boxed food items since the holidays has been so severe, the nonprofit is cutting in half the number of monthly food boxes it hopes to provide in the near future to homeless and other needy families, from 800 down to 400.

The privately funded organization is asking for the community’s help in gathering 33,600 canned and boxed food items to provide six months’ worth of food.

The Rescue Mission has been distributing food to the needy for more than 25 years and has experienced shortages before, such as in 2009 during the Great Recession when the need for donations doubled from the previous year. Rescue Mission operators said the rise in homelessness from 2013 to 2015 is contributing to increased need at a time when food donations are down.

The number of food items in each food category the Rescue Mission is requesting range from 2,400 to 4,800. Needs include:

Canned food: 5-ounce cans of meat and tuna; 15-ounce cans of soup, vegetables, fruits, and beans; 18-ounce jars of peanut butter; and 24-ounce jars of spaghetti sauce.

Boxed or bagged food: 6-ounce boxes of rice and mashed potatoes; 7.5-ounce boxes of macaroni and cheese; and 15-ounce bags of dry pasta.

Donations can be dropped off from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the Rescue Mission’s Village of Hope housing campus, 1 Hope Drive, Tustin. Food items also can be ordered online and sent to the Village of Hope at OCRM Donation Warehouse, c/o Mike Martinez, 1 Hope Drive, Tustin, CA, 92782.

For more information, call 714-247-4303 or email info@rescuemission.org.