The people who run Minnesota food shelves say they’re seeing unprecedented demand, including lots of middle class people who’ve never used food shelves before.

Fortunately, as demand increases, so does the generosity of Minnesotans.

One local man was forced to turn to his local food shelf when everything in his life started falling apart.

A year ago, Jeff and his wife Hannah had a middle-class life — two jobs, a house and kids. Jeff has five kids from his first marriage.

The family had a rough 2008. Hannah had been diagnosed with a rare ovarian cancer. Doctors performed surgery and told the couple they thought they got it all. They were wrong.

“Right before Christmas, knowing I was getting laid off, we had her do some more tests and the cancer was back, and it was everywhere,” Jeff said.

In January, he lost his job at the steel mill. In June, Jeff lost Hannah. She was only 27.

“She fought for nine months with strength that I’ve never seen, she fought with everything she had,” he said. “Supporting someone who has cancer is very expensive. It’s extremely expensive and we did everything we could for her.”

That included going to the Friends in Need Food Shelf when money got tight.

“First of all, I never thought I’d be here,” Jeff said.

Friends in Need is located in St. Paul Park in a building borrowed from Marathon Oil.

“We are seeing more people in one day than we used to see in a whole month when I started 11 years ago,” said Michelle Rageth, the food shelf director. Statewide, there’s been a 27-percent increase in the number of people using food shelves.

“People think it’s just the poor, it isn’t the poor anymore,” said Bill Rehak, the food shelf’s volunteer warehouse manager.

Jeff is like a lot of food shelf clients — a middle-class guy who’s fallen on hard times.

“There’s no way I could make the mortgage payment and keep up with the food, and obviously I have to feed my kids.”

He comes to Friends in Need on Tuesdays.

“I can get milk, I can get eggs, I can get what I need for them,” he said. “That’s a huge relief, a huge help.”

After losing his job, his wife and his savings, you might expect Jeff to be full of despair. He’s not. He thinks things can’t get worse. He hopes the New Year will bring a new job.

“I’ve done a lot of things,” he said. “So I would be open to anything at this point. I’m not going to be picky.”

WCCO TV