TEMECULA -- Local food banks are reporting especially high demand this month, which their directors attribute to tough times for low-income families.

Supplies of canned and nonperishable foods have dwindled at the Temecula/Murrieta Community Pantry, director Margie Hammersley said Friday. Three times more families sought aid this August than last August, she said.

The food bank at St. Martha's Catholic Parish in Murrieta is also serving more families than usual. Director of welfare Catherine Mailliard said her food bank has already signed up 350 families for aid in a fiscal year that started in July, compared to around 200 at this time last year.

"It's because there are more layoffs from local businesses, and the costs of gasoline and utilities are higher," Mailliard said. "People with minimum-wage jobs are having a rough time."

She didn't identify any large employers that had laid off workers recently but said she had been seeing more employees from real estate and mortgage firms.

Riverside County's unemployment rate in August stayed around 5 percent, despite an anticipated slowdown in the real-estate market, according to the state's Employment Development Department.

Outside the Temecula food bank Friday morning, more than a dozen people, mostly women, waited to be able to come in and get food.

Carmen Havanas said she had recently been laid off from the night shift at a senior care facility but hoped to land a new job soon.

"This place helps me so much," said Jeannie Rohme, who was driving her electric wheelchair down Main Street with a plastic crate full of groceries.

She said she had worked previously as a dental assistant but her multiple sclerosis made it difficult.

When demand is high, the Temecula food bank doesn't cut back on how much food it makes available to each family, Hammersley said. The volunteers try to make sure a family goes away with enough for four or five days' meals.

"Kids still have to eat," she said. "We just try to bring in more."

She added that although she expected the community's holiday season giving programs to kick in, the pantry mainly needs food: canned goods and nonperishables.

The pantry is supported by local churches, groceries and social service agencies. Earlier that morning, a parent from Vintage Hills Elementary School had stopped by to talk about students' making holiday food baskets for the homeless.

The Temecula pantry, 41910 Main St. in Old Town, will be moving next month to temporary quarters near Rotary Park on Pujol Street. The move will make way for the new City Hall planned for the Old Town area. Hammersley said she didn't know the exact day yet.

At first, the pantry will occupy a modular building on the Pujol Street site, she said. City officials have proposed to move the historic Alec Escallier house and barn on Mercedes Street to Pujol and lease them to the pantry.

Mailliard said her food bank in Murrieta will also need to move soon, but because of a recent rent increase.

Contact staff writer Quinn Eastman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2621, or qeastman@californian.com.

Needed: Canned and nonperishable foods

Where: Temecula/Murrieta Community Pantry, 41910 Main Street, (951) 676-8022

Open for donations: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

St. Martha's Thrift Store and Food Pantry, 40365 Murrieta Hot Springs Road, (951) 677-6347

Open for donations: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 9 a.m. to noon; Thursday, noon to 3 p.m.; Saturday, 1 to 3 p.m. Call first.