ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- A North County homeless center faces a food shortage as it tries to meet the needs of those in need.

Interfaith Community Services volunteer Kim Kroesch said, "When we're low on everything else, we just load up on bread. The problem with that is you're not giving them a balanced meal."

Empty shelves are making it difficult.

"The trend is things are getting worse just because donations are down and the demand is up," said Jerry Morgan, Director of Basic Needs at Interfaith Community Services.

Volunteer Kim Kroesch said, "Forty percent of the people we're seeing now are here for the first time, so it tells me that a group of the population that didn't need help now needs help."

Maria Martinez and her 6-month-old son, Jacob, are among the people who need help.

"I needed food help and it's hard right now because everything is so expensive and I don't have a job," said Martinez.

In addition to giving help with finding a job or housing, Interfaith provides three days of food to its clients, once every two months.

"Yeah, it was a good help. It was a good amount of food," said Martinez.

It is food that is moving all too quickly off the shelves, like the donations Interfaith received in early May.

"All of the food we got from the postal food drive basically just bypassed this warehouse and went directly to the pantry," said Morgan.

Empty crates in the warehouse tell the story of demand exceeding supply.

"We need a lot of tuna, we need any canned fruit, any canned vegetable; basically, anything that comes in a can, we can use," said Morgan.

Any help will go to those who need it the most.