East Lyme - On a windy, but sunny winter morning, employees from the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries unloaded packages from a truck parked outside of the Niantic Community Church.

They energetically carted containers of milk and coffee into a room in the church where they had set up tables of bread and other food for visitors arriving later.

As employees stacked items in the storage room, Sherrie Weiss, the pantry manager for Shoreline's Niantic food pantry, showed cans of fruits and vegetables, boxes of cereals and other non-perishable items ready for distribution.

The employees were working hard to prepare for the residents visiting the food pantry Thursday evening. Approximately 80 families visit the Niantic food pantry every week, said Shoreline Executive Director Patty Dowling. In 2012, the food pantry provided nearly 101,000 meals worth of food to about 1,000 people.

Shoreline's food pantry at the First Congregational Church in Old Lyme, which also serves Saturday brunch, serves 100 to 120 families each week, she said.

More people have visited the food pantries over the past several years during the tough economic times. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests food pantries are increasingly functioning as a supplement to people's income in the difficult times, rather than as an emergency measure, explained Dowling.

An estimated 80 percent of the visitors to the Niantic pantry which opened in 2009, stop by weekly, she said. Dowling estimates that families who come to the pantry can save about $4,000 on their food bill for the year, which they can then use to pay for housing, health care, transportation or school clothes as they face a challenging economy.

At the same time that demand has risen, food is also becoming more expensive, reflecting a national trend. Factors, such as the rising cost of food and cuts to programs that benefitted pantries, have made it more difficult to obtain foods from sources, such as food banks, explained Dowling.

"The need is great and like so many service programs, it just gets a little more expensive every year to buy the food," she said.

Sources, including clubs, companies, schools and faith communities, have donated to the pantry, which has helped during the challenging economy.

"The good news is we are operating in a community that really cares and absolutely supports what we do," she said. "They step up."

Overall, about 900 people volunteer for Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries, a nonprofit organization, including about 25 to 30 people at the Niantic site and about 55 to 65 in Old Lyme. The volunteers are a key reason the organization can provide the services it does, Dowling said.

"We're very blessed by the great volunteers we have," she said.

Shoreline also operates pantries in 11 towns. Residents who live in the towns from Madison up to Chester and Killingworth and then over to East Lyme, Old Lyme and Lyme can come to a pantry every week, where three-days for of food for the household is available, explained Dowling. She added that visitors are asked to fill out a card with their contact information, necessary in the event of food recalls, but there are no financial requirements or applications.

"When they come through the door, they are welcomed," she said.

For more information on the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and for a list of locations, call (860) 388-1988 or visit www.shorelinesoupkitchens.org.

K.DRELICH@THEDAY.COM

Locations include:

East Lyme: Niantic Community Church, 170 Pennsylvania Avenue, Niantic

Food Pantry: Thursdays 6 - 7 p.m.

Old Lyme: First Congregational Church, 2 Ferry Road, Old Lyme

Meal: Saturdays 9 - 10 a.m.

Food Pantry: Saturdays 9 - 11 a.m.