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Cleaning out your cupboard for a food drive? Good. When the economy goes down, the number of people seeking help from the nation's food banks goes up.
"This is a very critical time of year for us," says Amy Hudson of the Atlanta Community Food Bank in an e-mail.
Forget about contributing that can of water chestnuts you bought three years ago and never found a use for. Make your donations count.
"I always tell people, 'Think about what you like to eat,'" says Marguerite Nowak of the San Francisco Food Bank.
- Talk back: Do you contribute to food banks?
So what, specifically, do food banks need? Here's a list, although your local food banks might have specific needs, so check with them.
No. 1: Cash, plain and simple
"Consider this," Ross Fraser of Feeding America wrote in an e-mail. "If you buy a can of tuna fish and donate it to a food bank, it will cost you a dollar and some change." However, a $1 donation to Feeding America provides "about 20 pounds of food and grocery products to someone at risk of hunger."Other food banks rate their return on your dollar at anywhere from five to 15 pounds of food. They do it by buying in bulk, using volunteer labor and working with food brokers who notify them of deep discounts.
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If not cash, then what?
Though cash donations take care of bulk-food needs and necessities such as truck maintenance, food donations also play an important role. Food drives can provide more-healthful and higher-quality foods than bulk buys, and provide a greater diversity of foods.
"(Food drives) help us get different food, culturally appropriate food," Nowak says. Those donations -- such as pinto beans, corn flour, jalapenos as well as lentils and rice -- can be a big factor in serving the nation's increasingly diverse population, some of which isn't familiar with traditional American staples. In addition, some food banks, such as Feed the Poor in Salt Lake City, are trying to supply organic foods whenever possible.
Continued: What food banks need (and what they don't)
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