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MILWAUKEE - Mike Czarnecki is one of many volunteers working to keep the Hope House Food Pantry on Milwaukee's south side filled with food for the needy.

Stocking its food pantry is no easy task. Last year volunteers donated more than 3,000 hours to keep it filled. But these days the pantry needs more. It needs product. Czarnecki points out, "We need help from anyone in the community who could step up and donate food for the hungry."

Czarnecki is the coordinator for Food for the Hungry. It serves more than 700 meal programs, shelters, pantries, and other social service agencies.

Czarnecki says even though donations are down, the need is greater than ever. He notes, "I get a lot of the senior complexes at the end of the month. A loaf of bread will put another prescription in their household because of everything that's out there right now."

Walking through the pantry, it's hard not to notice the empty spaces. Czarnecki puts it this way. We used to get anywhere from 2 to 3 hundred thousand product on a good week. Now we're down to a hundred thousand on a good week.

Czarnecki, now retired, hopes companies come to the aid of ailing pantries. His goal is simple and noble. Make sure that this winter, fewer Milwaukee families have to do without.