Providence - The Rhode Island Community Food Bank said Monday that it's feeding nearly double the number of people each month compared with seven years ago, but food donations have dropped significantly.

Its statewide network of food pantries serves about 63,000 people each month, compared with 33,000 people per month in 2007. The bank received 6 million pounds of donated food in 2014, versus 7.2 million pounds in 2007, and is now buying food to meet the need.

"We want the state's leaders to realize we're doing everything we can, but we're really challenged to keep up with this high level of need," the food bank's CEO, Andrew Schiff, said Monday as it released its annual report at a news conference.

The state cut its annual grant to the food bank in half during the recession, to $173,000, Schiff said. He is asking the state to restore the funding.

The report is timed to coincide with the week of Thanksgiving, a time when people often ask whether the food bank has enough food for the holidays, Schiff said.

"Our point is, we're dealing with a significant problem, every month of the year," he said.

Sokhon Luong says she depends on pantries to feed her three children. The 30-year-old Providence woman says it's harder to afford food now that it's cold and she's paying for heat.

Luong is a student at the food bank's culinary job training program. She worked in manufacturing before, but she said she was laid off from one company and had to quit another because her fiance needed the car to get to his job.

"I hope the community out there can understand that we are really struggling, but we are doing our best and we are trying to do better," Luong said at the news conference.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said it's important to remember those who have been "left out, left behind and left back" in society.

"There's a narrative that has developed in Washington that if you are not succeeding in this economy, it reflects a lack of virtue or a lack of effort on your part, and indeed the cutting of all of these programs would actually be a good thing," the Rhode Island Democrat said.

Whitehouse said Luong's story of working to provide for her family disputes that argument, and shows "there is still work to be done as we build a better America."

While the economy is recovering, Schiff said many people are turning to the food bank because they can only find low-wage or part-time jobs, or fell into poverty when the benefits program for the long-term unemployed lapsed last year.

Food donations have dropped as grocery stores have become more efficient at controlling their inventory, and don't have large surpluses of food to donate, Schiff added.

According to the federal government, one in seven Rhode Island households, or about 61,000 households, cannot afford food for three meals a day for each household member. The current rate of food insecurity, at 14.4 percent, is down slightly from the rate at the height of the recession, which was 14.7 percent.

The food bank surveyed its patrons last year for a national study and found that many were choosing between paying for food and utilities, medicine or other necessities.