OSHKOSH — Laurie Galow flushed with sheepishness the first time she shopped at a food pantry.

The 51-year-old mom had a steady, 30-year career with a local insurance company before the recession hit in 2008 and thrust her into the river of newly unemployed, a casualty of corporate downsizing.

Too young to retire and too old to break back into a changing job market, Galow has found her only employment in temporary and minimum-wage jobs. Shopping at the Oshkosh Community Pantry and St. Vincent de Paul helps fill the gap between paydays and her husband's social security checks.

"It was real hard for me because I used to have a good income. I put my daughter through college. I used to be the one able to help other people, but now I need the help," she said.

In many ways, Galow represents the new face of poverty, a rapidly growing demographic of once well-to-do families that can no longer make ends meet.

"Unfortunately, the need is growing faster than the support. It's because the benefactors of the community are suffering just like everyone else," said Deacon Keith Holschbach, president of Father Carr's Place 2B. "They're paying the same higher prices. They're worried about the same job losses as everyone else. The tension on family finances is like it has never been before."

In effort to help, Gannett Wisconsin Media is launching its second-annual Stock the Shelves campaign today. The Northwestern and Gannett's nine other Wisconsin newspapers aim to raise more than $500,000 for Wisconsin food pantries, including $100,000 for 13 pantries in the Oshkosh area.

"I think we have an obligation to look at the needs of the community beyond our business mission. We need to lead by example, not just write editorials. We need to get in the game," said Stewart Rieckman, general manager of The Northwestern.

The newspaper's campaign raised $100,000 last year, an accomplishment Rieckman said will be tough to repeat, "but I think this community is going to step up and give at a level that will keep food on the table of those who need it."

Joining the Northwestern in this year's campaign are the J. J. Keller Foundation, Express Convenience Stores and local credit unions: Citizens First Credit Union, Fox Community Credit Union, Health Care Credit Union, Winnebago Community Credit Union, Community First Credit Union, UW Oshkosh Credit Union, Oshkosh Community Credit Union and the Winnebago Chapter of Credit Unions.

Most people have not felt an improvement in the nation's economy. Families have weathered cuts in pay, pensions and benefits. Health care deductibles have risen, along with the cost of food, utility bills and college tuitions. Money that might have gone toward long-term savings is now being used for day-to-day expenses.

"It's hard when you're living a modest life and then have to adjust to this (poverty). But, you learn to live life simple. You learn to appreciate what you have," Galow said.

The 2010 American Community Survey, released in September, estimates nearly 13 percent of families with children living in Winnebago County had incomes below the federal poverty line — currently set at $22,050 annually for a family of four.

That's an improvement from 2009 when 14 percent of families with children were living in poverty, but the situation is still worse than before the economy faltered in late 2008. The percentage of families living in poverty averaged 9 percent between 2006 and 2008.

Median household incomes are also much lower than they were before the recession. The median household income in 2010 was $48,177 compared to the 2006-08 average of $52,589.

"We've been in the thick of this for three years running. We look at (the rising poverty) and say, 'How can we sustain this?'" said Steve Vickman, executive director of the Oshkosh Community Pantry.

The pantry has tracked a 9 percent increase in demand for services so far this year, Vickman said. The pantry helped 2,300 people in August alone.

Father Carr's is on pace to reach 200,000 service opportunities — meaning every time the agency provides food, shelter or clinical help to a person — in 2011, Holschbach said.

Smaller pantries operating out of churches and schools also are reporting higher demand.

Lori Holland, who works with the Emmanuel United Church of Christ Food Pantry in Oshkosh said an average of 12 new families a month have been seeking assistance.

Sixty to 75 percent more households are seeking food assistance from the Lutheran Food pantry in Oshkosh than last year, said Peggy Kleveno, a helper at the pantry.

"You have those people that really have nothing, but on top of that you have the unemployed and the underemployed who are in many cases making half of what they used to, taking any job that is out there and needing to subsidize their families with pantry shopping and medical care when they can get it for free," said Holschbach. "We do everything we can do, you know … That requires, in our case, that we buy food like we never did before."

Virginia Culliton, 70, lives on the $1,000 per month she receives from social security. She called the Oshkosh Community Pantry a "beacon that brings you in."

Culliton's husband died at age 55, and she was laid off from her job a few years later. She has no retirement savings. Area community pantries are her lifeline.

"Older people have a lot of pride, and it hurts them to come in (for help). So, we have to reassure them that's what its here for. Just because you fell on bad times doesn't mean you're a bad person," she said.