CHICAGO - THE line for a Thanksgiving holiday meal was long when the Chicago Christian Industrial League shelter opened on Thursday morning, and volunteers served more than 200 people in the first 40 minutes - record demand for the shelter.

Among the hungry were familiar faces, people who had eaten their last Thanksgiving meal at the shelter and others who had helped provide those meals, said executive director Mary Shaver.

'These are the people who are always giving money - and now they're asking for help,' Ms Shaver said. 'These were the people donating money to us.'

As millions of American families gathered to give thanks for what they have, food banks and shelters struggled to cope with a spike in demand for their services. With more people feeling the weight of the economic downturn, those who oversee the charities say they are seeing many new faces on food lines.

'Food bank after food bank tells me it's new faces, people they haven't seen before,' said Mr Ross Fraser, spokesman for Feed America, a Chicago-based charity that coordinates corporate donations to more than 200 US food banks. 'They will tell you it's the worst it's ever been.'

The Greater Chicago Food Depository, the city's food bank, has seen a 33 per cent increase in food pantry demand from July to September of 2008, compared to the same period last year, said spokesman Bob Dolgan.

Donations to the Salvation Army in the Washington, DC, area have dropped 20 per cent, while the agency grapples with a 30 per cent increase in requests for assistance, said Major Steve Morris, the organisation's area commander.

The Food Bank of Alaska in Anchorage dipped into its Christmas reserves to make sure everyone seeking Thanksgiving Day donations received them. The food bank handed out turkey dinners Monday to 5,787 people at eight sites, about one-third more than last year's 4,237.

'I'm not worried about the Christmas stock today,' she said.

'That's a problem for Monday. What's important is that we didn't turn anybody away.' -- AP