Low-income areas of the city function in the local economy somewhat like canaries in a mine. Their sudden distress is an early warning sign to the more affluent suburbs.

So when friends who work on a North Side neighborhood council with me reported to the board that the local food pantry they run had seen a sudden spike in use, we wondered if more widespread economic pain could lie ahead.

Whether a full-blown recession will take hold, whether the recent downturn will be brief, or whether the political blustering of an election year will obscure or even alter reality, only the next few months will tell.

Some of the "facts" need to be examined, if only to stem unnecessary panic. But a more pressing priority is for those of us who are not struggling to come to the aid of those who are.

Pittsburghers always step up, so consider this a call for help.

For years the food pantry at St. Michael's and All Angels Church in Spring Garden has helped 40 to 50 families per month, but in early March the number suddenly rose to 64. That's one of the main resources in my neighborhood and its situation prompted my call to a much bigger food pantry to the north.

At Hampton-based North Hills Community Outreach, 35 new families qualified for food assistance in March, said director of services Carolyn Pschirer. "That's high. We can't continue at that rate, or we'll run out of food."

The organization has long served about 400 families every month at its two locations -- the Loaves and Fishes pantry in Hampton and North Boroughs Food Pantry at Allegheny General Hospital Suburban campus in Bellevue.

NHCO also provides help with utility bills; in fact, that represents a larger portion of its outreach than food does, said spokeswoman Wendy Gordon.

"Last week five new families applied for utility assistance -- all in one week. That's unusual," she said. "People are getting shut-off notices."

The high price of fuel and the queasiness of the mortgage industry had recently been cited as factors that might contribute to a recession. Then came word that employers slashed 80,000 jobs in March, leading some to say a recession is inevitable.

Maybe. What's undeniable is that this is an election year, and fear (or fear-mongering) can shape election results. Fear can also push a mild economic downturn into a panic, so while we pull out our checkbooks or put together shopping lists for our local food pantries, let's take a quick look at a few important numbers.

Saturday's lead story was job loss. Although job creation has been brisk for most of the past few years, this was the third straight month of downward trends. The March job loss pushed the overall jobless level up to 5.1 percent, but that figure has long been considered "full employment."

Another of last week's big economic stories was that near-record numbers of Americans may soon qualify for food stamps. But these numbers, if they materialize, will set a record in gross totals, not in percentage of the American population.

The last peak in food stamp use, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was 27.5 million, but that was in 1994, when the country's population was about 262 million. This means a record 10.5 percent of the nation qualified for food stamps in 1994.

In 2008, with the U.S. population at 301 million, food stamp recipients could hit 28 million. That's only 9.3 percent of the population.

"Only"?

Accurate statistics should matter to lawmakers, business leaders and voters, but as friends and neighbors, we can't forget that behind the numbers -- whatever they portend -- there are real grown-ups and children who are worried and hungry.

Most of the food at St. Michael's pantry in Spring Garden comes from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, some of it purchased and some of it free.

"We are low on funding," said coordinator Jean Herbert. She recently sent out donation-appeal letters so the pantry can keep its monthly per-family allotment of two bags of dry goods, "something from the freezer" and a bag to fill with produce from St. Sebastian Church's "Spark of Hope" truck.

North Hills Community Outreach also accepts money donations -- grocery store gift cards are especially helpful for meeting special dietary needs -- but most of its food stock comes from individuals and food drives.

"We use 600 boxes of cereal a month," Ms. Pschirer said. Donations tend to fall off in early summer, but May 10 is the U.S. Postal Service's "Stamp Out Hunger" collection.

"That's huge -- we are so happy to get that," she said. "I would love to have the problem of running out of space to store the food."

And we'd all love for it not to be needed, but right now, it is. Contact your local food pantry to give or receive assistance.