WORCESTER - The Worcester County Food Bank saw an 80% increase in the number of new people seeking food assistance last month compared to last year at this time.

And they distributed 33% more food.

Executive Director Jean McMurray said, "Those numbers back up just the significant, unprecedented demand happening in our communities."

McMurray says they're still collecting their April data, but are seeing an even greater increase over the last few weeks. She says her staff and volunteers are working harder than ever before.

"The great recession of 2008 through 2010, 2011, we saw a significant number of people losing their jobs, but that was over time," McMurray said. "This really just escalated so quickly."

For the first time, the food bank is having to purchase food, using money from community donations.

"Where we've seen a decrease in donations is the supermarkets. For obvious reasons, they are selling more of the food, so they don't have as much to donate to us," McMurray said.

Congressman Jim McGovern says the latest economic stimulus package didn't include any additional funding for food insecurity. McGovern says it's important that it's included in future packages so more people don't go hungry.

"I want to see more investments in SNAP. I want to see the minimum benefit go up. I want to see a 15 percent increase across the board. I want more money to our food banks and food pantries," McMurray said, adding it's hard to know how long this will go on.

She does say the bright spot is they're​ just as busy responding to the community's generosity as they are to the need.

"That gives us hope that if the help is there from the community, that we can keep pace with the need and we will get through this," McMurray said. 

The food bank expects to continue seeing a greater need for food as the number of people seeking unemployment rises.  They ask people interested in helping out to donate to their local food pantries. This reduces the amount the food bank will have to then donate.