COEUR d'ALENE - Sometimes, Carolyn Shewfelt gets to talk to people who turn to the Community Action Partnership food bank.

It's not always a happy conversation.

"We had a gentleman come in yesterday, and he just started sobbing," she said.

"A lot of them don't want to be here. They're used to working. Your heart just goes to them," said Shewfelt, food bank manager.

"I know how hard it is. You don't want to be there. You don't want to be on that side of the counter. You lose a job, you have to. It's the last place anybody wants to be, typically."

But that's where they're headed.

With Kootenai County's jobless rate at 11 percent, the number of those needing help at Fresh Start, a center for the homeless, and the Dirne Community Health Center, keeps rising.

Same story at the food bank on Industrial Loop.

By 10:30 Tuesday morning, just 90 minutes after the doors opened, 10 people had collected food boxes, and 32 more received perishables like bread, meat and milk.

Brandon McDonald and Shawna Swales of Coeur d'Alene visited the food bank for the first time Tuesday.

They're "nervous" about living paycheck to paycheck, Swales said, so they're trying to save where they can.

The produce, meat and juice they received help them survive on a tight budget and save a little money for their children. McDonald is on disability, and Swales is a store manager.

"It's tough to get by," she said.

Those who used to come in once a month are coming in weekly, Shewfelt said.

"They're more dependent on us than they have been in the past," Shewfelt said.

It's not likely to lessen soon, especially when considering the numbers of those applying for Thanksgiving food boxes.

Already, about 2,600 applications have been turned in - equal to last year's record - and the deadline to fill out the paperwork isn't until Monday.

Shewfelt is expecting another 1,000 people who regularly use the food bank to sign up.

Which means it will be another struggle to provide all the turkeys for each food box. Last year, not everyone got one.

"Everything is community dependent," she said.

Cash donations are down, and some food contributions have expirations dates stretching back to the '70s and '80s.

But a number of drives are expected to kick off soon to supply stuffing, cranberries, gravy, evaporated milk and more.

"People don't have their heads into it until November," Shewfelt said.

Volunteers are needed, too.

For the week of Nov. 14-18, when the Thanksgiving food boxes will be distributed, she said they'll need 475 volunteers.

"It's going to be crazy," she said.

"We're going to be ready to serve people. We just don't have the resources so we're going to be depending on the community."

Jim Myers plans to do his part.

The Coeur d'Alene man said he'll donate $1,000 next week to a campaign to help stock food bank shelves.

"It's important to think about the people, give back when you can," he said.

Myers, who works in sales, said he has had a good year, and wants to use his business contacts to raise awareness and increase donations.

A program that begins next week at Super 1 grocery stores gives shoppers a chance to pay for bags filled with food that will be given to the food bank.

Myers hopes to help get it started with his gift.

"There's people that are hungry," he said. "That's how I'm looking at it. My challenge to Coeur d'Alene, this is what I'm doing. What are you willing to do?"