The Community Food Bank of New Jersey estimates it’s giving out more than 100,000 pounds of food a day to people displaced by Hurricane Sandy. Despite the abundance of donations from around the country, some food pantries in New Jersey are still struggling to feed the hungry.

The line for Thanksgiving turkeys and all the trimmings stretched down the block outside a Newark Church. Most of the people clutched white pieces of paper – referrals from emergency services.

Carmen Irizarry didn’t have one. She’s on welfare and has four children.  

“This lady was praying earlier saying that even if it’s a chicken or a ham as long as the family’s together… and I think that’s true, that’s what counts.”

Local food pantries say the number of those in need has dramatically increased in the weeks since, but donations are down. Judy Bennett from Apostle House says donations of turkeys went down by a quarter this year.

“Our supplies are thinner because where we normally get free food commodities, they’re being shared with the needy in South Jersey at this time.”

And that means less for Newark’s chronically poor.