Last week, the New York Times ran a photo of dozens of people scavenging for food in a dump in Haiti. A dump. Starving people there have rioted, burned tires and forced the ouster of the country’s prime minister. Beans, corn and rice, the story said, have become “closely guarded treasures.”

It was hard to look away from that photo, and difficult to fathom how a government could accept such desperation. Yet in some ways, it also was easy to think, “Hey, that is happening far away, in the developing world, not here.”

But it got me to wondering what is happening in Monterey County? With food and gas prices climbing, how are people who live on the margins even in the best of times making ends meet now that we are in the worst of times?

And what is county government doing about it?

Leslie Sunny, executive director of the Food Bank for Monterey County, offers the unadorned facts.

Through a federally funded emergency food assistance program administered by the state, the food bank gets $42,000 in credits every quarter to buy items from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A TRUCKLOAD OF SPAGHETTI COST $15,069 IN DECEMBER, AND $27,921 LAST MONTH.

From Nov. 7 to Feb. 8, Sunny says, the food bank served 21,586 households. A year ago, the total was 13,704. A truckload of spaghetti cost $15,069 in December. Last month, it was $27,921.

“What this means is, I can buy less product to serve more people,” Sunny says.

It means that 750 people line up for food at St. Mary’s Church in Salinas. A year ago, there were 400 at most.

It means that the bags of food that used to contain 20 items, including rice and beans – the “treasures” in Haiti also are valued here – pasta sauce, and cans of fruit, now only have eight. The monthly allotment also includes donations of breadstuffs and 35-40 pounds of fresh produce.

It means the food bank, which serves the entire county at 30 distribution sites each month, actually ran out of rice recently.

“We were shocked,” Sunny says. “We have never run out of rice.”

As food and gas prices increase throughout the world, and scarcity is driven by wheat, sugar and corn diverted into alcohol and ethanol production, it is not just the poor using food bank services.

“We don’t take demographics,” Sunny says, “but the increase in numbers is coming from somewhere. We are finding more working families that need our help.”

Sunny notes that the food bank’s $1.3 million budget comes from donations, grants and other sources, but there’s been a 61 percent decline in the federal emergency food assistance program in the past six years.

“I thought we were making a dent,” Sunny says. “I thought it was going to get better… ”

The food bank receives $12,000 annually from the city of Monterey and $10,000 from Salinas, Sunny says, but nothing from the county. This is a sore point, and Sunny says she will send a letter asking the Board of Supervisors to allocate $100,000 for 12 months for rice and beans for 5,000 families.

County Administrative Officer Lew Bauman says the request “would be weighed against all the others. In difficult times you anticipate many nonprofits are in dire need.”

He expressed surprise and empathy when told of the food bank numbers.

“When you compound the fiscal crisis in California related to subprime mortgages and the price of fuel and the pressure on the local food industry and trading partners, it’s a tough time,” Bauman says.

He notes that the county’s demographics mean many people rely on county services to survive.

Supervisor Fernando Armenta says it’s a “good question” as to why county money isn’t allocated to the food bank.

“I don’t have a good answer,” he says. “No one has requested my help… it’s been years since I have been over to the food bank. It’s probably a good idea to check it out.

“Hopefully, [Sunny] sends the letter sooner rather than later,” Armenta continues. “… If there was a letter in my hands making a request, we’ve got to figure out a way to get those needs met. The bottom line is, we probably need to get a sense [of what is happening].”

Some help may come from an extra $20,000 in federal money distributed through the Community Action Partnership, part of the county Department of Social and Employment Services. The food bank already gets $20,000 a year this way.

Department Director Elliott Robinson says the partnership’s commission met this week and will make a funding recommendation that he will send to county supervisors in the next few weeks.

It’s a start.

But with the economy showing no signs of improving soon, the county must decide where on its priority list feeding people ranks, because Sunny’s numbers likely tell only part of the story. No, this is not Haiti. But in a relatively prosperous county in one of the richest countries in the world, the thought of anyone going hungry is as disturbing as the Times photo.