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But since this is the time of year for food drives and donation pleas, it's a good time to consider making smart choices when you shop for the hungry.
That means adding protein-rich foods such as beans or canned meat and fish to the bag you are dropping off for your local food bank.
"Any of the dried beans and peas are powerhouses for nutrition," said Rebecca Gilliam Wrenn, a registered and licensed dietitian with the South Carolina state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
She also suggested including canned fruits, which most people will eat and which are easy to chew, along with canned soups, tomatoes and other vegetables.
"If you get noodles of some sort and a cream-of-something soup, you can take any kind of meat -- chicken, tuna, hamburger -- and make a casserole that will go a long, long way," Gilliam Wrenn said.
She suggests people think about using coupons or taking advantage of deals such as the weekly specials when they shop for those in need.
"It may not be the peanut butter my family likes or the cereal your family likes, but somebody will enjoy those Frosted Flakes," she said.
"We're happy to have anything and our clients are happy to have anything," said Elizabeth Quackenbush, chief development officer at Harvest Hope in Columbia. "Our mission really is to feed hungry people. We're not at the point where we're turning things away."
And the need for donations is definitely there.
Harvest Hope acts as a clearinghouse for food for the needy in 20 counties. It serves 400 member agencies from soup kitchens to shelters to food pantries. From January through June, Harvest Hope served 1.7 million people, including 339,000 families.
The demand is up 100 percent from this time last year," Quackenbush said. "Over the last 24 months the need trajectory has gone straight up."
The economy has forced some families -- who used to donate to the food bank -- to become clients in search of food.
"The food and financial donations are steady. But the demand is so much greater than last year," she said.
"The holiday season is always a busy time. People think about other people typically at that time. And you think about food and family gatherings at the holidays."
