PHOENIX -- At St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, it's the busiest it's ever been.
"It's difficult times for everybody," St. Mary's spokesman Jerry Brown said.
Thousands of hungry people come to the Food Bank for help.
And everyday, the workers say they see how hard this economy is hitting the Valley.
"We now have people coming in who this time last year were donating food to the food banks or donating money," Brown said.
The Phoenix center has handed out 25 tons more food this year than last.
New figures show why.
Officials say that more than 900,000 people in Arizona are now on food stamps.
That's a 36 percent increase from 2008, or about 250,000 people.
"If you look at a chart, the last year and half, it's been climbing every single month," said Ginny Hildebrand with the Association of Arizona Food Banks. "It's almost like the line is going straight up."
Hildebrand helps track hunger across the state. She said it's reached unprecendented levels.
"The food is going out as fast as it's coming in right now," she said.
That's something St. Mary's knows all too well.
"We're delivering 300,000 meals a day into the Valley," Brown said.
The sad news is that as unemployment continues to rise, so will the demand. And some estimate the real threat of hunger is even worse than reported.
"For every person who's on food stamps today, there's another person out there who is hungry and needs it," Brown said.
