COEUR d’ALENE — It wasn't long ago that Todd Tyler remembers waiting to cash a check from a temporary employment agency and feeling about as low as a father and husband can feel.

"I'd be sitting there in the drive-through," said Tyler, of Post Falls. "Literally tears would come out of my eyes because I would bring home about 45 bucks or less and it's like, 'Wow, I've got three daughters and a wife. How am I going to do that?'"

He said it's practically impossible to support a family on a single income.

"It takes two or three incomes anymore to raise children," he said. "It's been really hard."

While he is doing better as an independent painter now, Tyler's struggle to make ends meet and provide for his family is still a reality.

And he's not alone. He's actually part of the majority.

According to a new report from Hunger Free America, a New York City-based national nonprofit that advocates for policies and programs needed to end domestic hunger in the U.S., 63 percent of Idaho households with at least one employed adult are unable to afford sufficient food.

"The United States is facing an epidemic of the ‘working hungry,'" said Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg. "This shameful data is the latest evidence that the American dream is seriously at risk unless we change our current economic and political policies nationwide. Low wages are still the top cause of U.S. hunger and malnutrition. The good news is that increasing the federally mandated minimum wage would provide food life preservers to the millions of Americans drowning in hunger."

Hunger Free America found that more than 6 percent of all Americans — more than one in 20 — worked but were unable to afford sufficient food from 2013-2015.

Idaho is among the states with the highest percentage of working hungry people out of their food insecure populations at 63 percent. Alaska (71 percent), North Dakota (66 percent) and Utah (64 percent) were the others in this category.

The study, “The State of the Working Hungry: Low Wages Chief Cause of Malnutrition,” found a correlation between minimum wage and hungry working people. States with a minimum wage of $9 an hour or more had less per capita working people's hunger than states with minimum wage at or below the federal $7.25 minimum. In states at $9 or above, 6.48 percent of the population were working hungry, compared to 7.01 percent in the states at $7.25 or below.

"Disproving the stereotype that SNAP recipients are all in ‘inner cities’ or blue states, out of the top 10 SNAP-utilizing states, eight voted for Trump in the general election," Berg said. "This proves that large numbers of Americans who rely on federal nutrition assistance live in rural, mostly white, areas. Considering that 44 million Americans — living in suburban, rural and urban areas of every state — count on SNAP, the ‘they’ is really ‘us."

Berg said he hopes President-elect Donald Trump commits to ending hunger by creating jobs, raising wages and bolstering the federal food safety net.

"At a bare minimum, we hope President-elect Trump pledges to stop Speaker Paul Ryan’s misguided plans to again slash food aid to vulnerable Americans in order to pay for more tax cuts for the mega-rich," Berg said.

In North Idaho, several soup kitchens and food programs exist to combat the working poor's food plight. The soup kitchen at St. Pius X Catholic Church is in its 29th year and serves a hot meal every Friday. Tyler, who is in the process of regaining financial stability, frequently attends to stretch his dollar and supplement the unpredictable income that accompanies being an independent worker.

“For a while I wasn’t working very much at all," Tyler said, leaning back in his chair from his half-eaten meal. "It was a blessing to have food."

Many of the volunteers at the St. Pius soup kitchen regularly see individuals and families who are down on their luck. Some receive Social Security funds, but many come to fill their children's bellies and feed themselves when they are not able to provide a square meal.

"There are people that work seasonally or part time. None of it's adequate to sustain them," said St. Pius volunteer and retired priest Fr. Dan Wetzler. "We have people that come in here, a couple families that are living in their cars. They lost their houses for whatever reason. When I ask, 'Where are you going to stay?' they say, 'We're still in our car.' One family had four kids. It just breaks your heart."

When the St. Pius kitchen opened in 1987, it was a handful of volunteers and just a few people and families who would trickle in. Now, the need has grown, and the 10 or so volunteers see anywhere from 50-80 people each Friday.

"We just know that there's a need, so we've tried to fulfill that need through the years," said Kathy Montgomery, who has volunteered with the soup kitchen since the beginning. "There are homeless people and people who aren’t homeless but can’t affort to feed themselves and their children a warm meal."

Soup kitchen founders Gary and Sandy Mamola are determined to feed those in need, whatever their situations. Sandy, who was under the weather Friday and unable to come to the church to serve the meal, started the program when her mom bought her a soup pot and encouraged her to feed the hungry.

"When we started this kitchen, we knew we were in a resort town, we knew it looked beautiful, but there were poor people," Gary said. "If people share, there's plenty, but you have to be willing to share and get out and just do it. It helps people."

He credits his wife for her tireless work to continue the soup kitchen and feed those who need a meal.

"Sandy's at the heart of this," he said.

The St. Pius soup kitchen is hosting a fundraiser today to support its upcoming Christmas meal. The holiday meal will be a roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and vegetables. The fundraiser meal starts at 6 p.m. and will feature baked potatoes with all the fixings and more. About 100 people are expected, but volunteers will be cooking for 200 and the community is invited to attend. Admission is an at-will donation at the door, "whatever you can afford," Montgomery said.

"Some people contribute $1,000, some people contribute a dollar," she said. "It all goes to folks we serve."

And no one goes without or gets turned away, ensuring the poor, the homeless, the working poor and their families, the elderly and the hungry who come to St. Pius at 4:30 p.m. each Friday get taken care of for at least one nice meal that day.

St. Pius X is located at 625 E. Haycraft Ave. in Coeur d'Alene.