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At the Second Harvest Food Bank, the storage space is plentiful, but the supplies of food less so.

"People are using food banks, not just for emergency feeding anymore, but to supplement their food budget because they are struggling so much to make ends meet," said Natalie Jayroe, the food bank's director.

During this time of year, Second Harvest usually holds around 2 million pounds of food in its warehouse. Right now, they have just 800,000 pounds. The problem: more demand from those in need and fewer supplies coming in from both private donations and government funding.

"We call it the perfect storm," Jayroe said.

With that in mind, the undersecretary of the USDA came to Second Harvest on Wednesday to host a roundtable meeting on how to tackle hunger both in the New Orleans area and across the country.

"That concerns me, that food banks and food pantries are going to face an uphill battle on a continuing basis in this economy," Kevin Concannon, USDA undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.

This year, federal stimulus money ran out for food pantries, which included hundreds of thousands of dollars for Second Harvest.

In Louisiana, the number of people on food stamps has skyrocketed in the past few years: from 723,738 people in 2009, to 825,918 people in 2010, climbing to 905,000 so far this year.

The growing need comes as a bi-partisan Congressional committee looks at potential cutbacks.

"There's communication with that so-called "Super Committee" in Washington, D.C. that will be considering cuts in agriculture, cuts in the nutrition programs," Concannon said, "and so we're watching that and we'll be wary about that."

That leaves places like Second Harvest turning to foundations for help in meeting the food demand. This past summer, the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, through Second Harvest, helped feed children who would normally get school lunches.

"[We] very successfully fed over 130,000 hot meals to our kids during the summer months, which can be a very challenging time for our young students, when school ends," said Kristin Shannon of the Emeril Lagasse Foundation.

As the holiday season approaches, food banks are hoping to get more donations, during a time of year when donors appear to be the most generous.

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