"When home sales began to slow, when the economy started taken a turn downward, I was not surprised with the fallout in the food stamp program," DCF Secretary George Sheldon says. He blames fewer construction jobs and an unemployment rate higher than the national average on the increased need at the checkout lane.

"The story I hear the most is 'I didn't want to have to go this route, but because of the economy this is the route I have to come to'," Derrick Riggins said. Riggins is a case worker at the Tallahasee-based food stamp hotline.

Last year, the office recieved between 60-80,000 calls per day. Today, more than 120,000 calls for assistance will likely come in.

The statistics are surprisingly staggering in some panhandle counties. Santa Rosa's food stamp application rate is more than 60 percent higher this year than last year. By comparision, in Duval and Clay counties, not hit nearly as hard by the constrctution freeze, food stamp applications are actually down slightly from last year.

St. Johns County families are not as lucky. DCF records reveal a food stamp application rate up nearly 50 percent from last year.

"I want to sit down and cry with some of my people," Lee Ann Godwin, another DCF case worker, says. "But I have to continue getting their information in."