“What we have out here is more need and fewer centers of resources,” said Dom Betro, the executive director of Family Services, a nonprofit group that provides child care and food to needy families in Riverside County. “We have more working poor than anyone can know how to handle. People travel further distances to work for less pay because they have to. Even if there is help — and that’s not always — people who need it can’t get to it.”

Social workers here often point to a 2009 study by the James Irvine Foundation, which showed that the region has far fewer nonprofit groups per capita than the rest of the state, with less money funneled in from local foundations.

“There’s all these new problems but no new philanthropic dollars there to address them,” said Mr. Berube, from the Brookings Institution. “In many places there are these de facto systems in place but not the kind of leadership to really address what’s needed.”

When Larry Ellwell became principal of Victoria Elementary School in San Bernardino a few years ago, he was stunned by the number of families who could not afford necessities like clothes and dental care. When he worked with poor students closer to Los Angeles, he said, they knew where to find aid. But in the Redlands school district, home to a university and well-appointed mansions, there were few free clinics or other outlets for assistance. So he began to offer them — now the school hosts a roving clinic staffed by medical students and a clothing giveaway known as Victoria’s Closet.

“It’s a lot of triage work — who needs something the most and what do they most need,” Mr. Elwell said. “There’s no stigma anymore, because so many people are just trying to scrape by and make it work.”

For Ms. Acosta, scraping by recently took a new turn: She moved to the other side of the desk at Catholic Charities, taking a job as an intake worker. She works about 30 hours a week at $12 an hour, giving people the same kind of help she seeks. Even now, she is not earning enough to stop selling ice pops.

Just a couple of years ago, when the dry cleaner called reminding her to pick up a pair of pants, Ms. Acosta told him to give them to charity. “Now I am one of the people taking giveaways,” she said. “I see people all the time in worse positions than we are in. The kids are healthy, we have a roof. Maybe that’s the best we can hope for.”