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Rehoboth Helping Hands Food Pantry coordinator Steve Martin says donations to the non-profit food bank are normally slow in the summer, but the situation has rarely been this dire.

The oasis of food assistance for the town's struggling families has run so low on donated items that organizers have decided not to open for the agency's normal Thursday afternoon food distribution next week.

"This has never happened since I took it over," Martin said, standing amidst mostly empty shelves in a room in the rear of a Winthrop Street shopping plaza.

"There's almost nothing on the shelves," he said.

Martin says the pantry, which serves about 35 local families, is appealing for donations of canned goods, pancake mix, soups and non-food items such as toilet paper so the agency can re-open for its scheduled Aug. 14 distribution. While area food pantries are normally flush with donated foodstuffs during the holidays, when consumers are apt to think of the poor, supply levels normally drop in the summer.

In North Attleboro, a food bank operated by the town health department put out an urgent appeal last month after supplies fell critically low. Food pantries in Attleboro and Mansfield say they are badly in need of both donations and volunteers.

"It's a tough time," said Rehoboth's Martin, who added that in the summertime families are frequently busy with activities or away on vacation. "Unfortunately, the people who are most in need don't get a vacation."

Helping Hands has a refrigerator and freezer to accommodate limited amounts of meat and frozen items, Martin said. Both are empty.

Food bank operators say the seasonal falloff in donations is made worse now by economic uncertainty and job losses, which tend to add to the numbers of those seeking food aid.

Elaine Petrasky of Self Help in Attleboro said she has been relying more and more on food purchases from the Boston Food Bank to fill out shelves that serve 76 of the city's needy housholds.

Rising food prices have added to the problem, she said, since families that once could afford all their purchases are now in need of help.

"It's a real domino effect," she said.

Now, food banks are depending on traditional New England generosity to help fill their shelves. Already, some operators have witnessed optimistic signs.

In North Attleboro, last month's appeal brought a flurry of donations that have improved food stocks considerably, a health department employee said. In Rehoboth, Martin said some families have actually volunteered to go out and buy groceries specifically for the food pantry.

In some areas, pantry volunteers have charged bulk food orders on their own credit cards just to put food on the shelves.

Martin said donations to Helping Hands can be dropped off at the town Council on Aging Center on Bay State Road.

In Attleboro, Self Help accepts donations at its office in the former Richardson School on Pine Street during its daily 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. operating schedule.