Unique Crumbley, left, of Providence, chats with Heather Langlois, head chef at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, where Crumbley volunteers. At right is Erynn O’Neil.

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The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

PROVIDENCE — One out of six children in Rhode Island doesn’t always get enough to eat, according to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

The state’s skyrocketing unemployment rate, at 9.3 percent — tied with Michigan as the highest in the nation — and the mortgage foreclosure crisis have combined to force more and more families to seek help from food pantries to make ends meet.

“We have 47,000 households, almost 11 percent, who cannot afford food,” said Andrew Schiff, executive director of the food bank, which distributes 7 million pounds of food to 167 food pantries in the state. “People are flocking to food pantries and kitchens.”

Schiff said that emergency food programs across the state have reported a 12-percent increase in the number of people looking for an extra bag of groceries to carry them through the end of the month, and those numbers are expected to rise with the arrival of the cold weather.

“This is the worst I’ve seen it,” said Elizabeth O’Day, who runs the Poverello food pantry on Hartford Avenue in Providence. “We used to think of food pantries as a place for those who were marginal to begin with. But the need has spilled over to the middle class. In the past year, there has been a sharp increase in the number of working families who need food.”

Many families in Rhode Island are only one paycheck away from going hungry. An unexpected medical bill or job loss can plunge some households into poverty.

Unique Crumbley, a mother of four, including two toddlers, is one of those people. In July, her husband, a certified nursing assistant, lost his job at the same time that Crumbley began an unpaid job-training program in food services at the food bank.

Suddenly, her husband was the one cooking, cleaning and caring for the children while Crumbley went to school. The role reversals led to frequent arguments. Even with food stamps, the couple struggled to pay their $900 monthly rent and their utility bills. Compounding the problem, Crumbley’s 2-year-old twins both have food allergies that make meal preparation more difficult and more costly.

One day, Crumbley, who is 29 and lives in Providence, got a call that the clothes dryer was on fire.

“We were lucky the house didn’t burn down,” she said Thursday.

With the family unable to pay rent, their landlord began eviction proceedings. But there was good news on the horizon. After graduating from the food bank’s Community Kitchen program, Crumbley landed a part-time job baking desserts for a Seekonk restaurant, and the manager has been so happy with her performance that he offered her a full-time job.

“I can’t stop smiling,” Crumbley said. “The food bank has opened so many doors.”

Schiff said there is no reason, even during a severe recession, that families should go hungry in Rhode Island. Congress recently increased food stamp benefits as well as the number of emergency food programs available to the state.

“We understand that the state has a significant budget crisis,” Schiff said, “but there are federal programs where we are leaving money on the table. We are only reaching 56 percent of those people eligible for food stamps. If we got to 80 percent, that would mean an additional $35 million [in federal dollars] to Rhode Island that would be spent in stores and boost the local economy.”

Although food stamp participation in Rhode Island has increased, thanks to the University of Rhode Island’s Food Stamp Outreach Project, Schiff said that the state could streamline the enrollment process by accepting applications at community action agencies, health centers and supermarkets.

He encouraged school districts to provide free breakfast at those schools where the majority of students qualify for free lunch, a federal program. For every 100 students who receive free or reduced-price lunches, only 40 participate in the breakfast program, Schiff said, adding that research shows that the universal free breakfast program significantly boosts student participation.

Schiff also urged the state to increase its support for the food bank. The General Assembly cut grant money to the food bank by 50 percent, from $384,000 in 2007 to $192,000 in 2008. Due to this reduction in financing, the food bank lost the ability to acquire 1.5 million pounds of food.

Meanwhile, some food pantries are running dangerously low. When Schiff visited a Coventry food pantry last month, its shelves were bare. And, during a tour of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank’s cavernous Niantic Avenue headquarters last week, a surprisingly high number of shelves were empty, a sign that demand is outstripping supply.

Schiff said that the public has continued to give generously, despite an economy that is worsening every day. Although Schiff was heartened by a recent Boy Scouts drive that netted 200,000 pounds of food, enough to fill a large gym, a staffer reminded Schiff that this food would disappear in a week.

“We are getting far less food, far fewer donations,” said O’Day, of the Poverello food pantry. “But we never turn anyone away.”

lborg@projo.com