ALTADENA, California (CNN) — When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank.

Charities say they’ve seen a rise in the number of middle-class families turning up at food banks.

It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill.

“It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, ‘This is really where I’m at?’ “ she told CNN. “I go ‘no way;’ [but] this is true. This is reality. This is the stuff you see on TV. It was hard. It was very hard.”

CNN