Creativity is a frill on some family meal menus, but that sort of garnish is quickly becoming a necessity as food pantry officials in southern Wisconsin look for ways to help fill the cupboards for winter.

While direct calls for more donations are becoming predictable in a sliding economy, there are big plans to gather canned food at the polls in Dane County on Election Day, and for the distributors to buy and repackage more bulk items. On a smaller scale, a confirmation class in Fennimore will go trick-or-treating on behalf of the food pantry, and all of the counters at the Dane County Clerk of Courts Office have penny jars for donations to Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin.

Those pennies add up. More than $1,000 will be passed along to Second Harvest by the end of the month, said Crystal Brumley, the penny person at the clerk's office.

"Sometimes a person will come in to pay a fine and just drop a twenty into the jar," she said.

Second Harvest, which serves 400 food-related programs in 16 counties, has had to write more and bigger checks this past year, said Robert Mohelnitzky, president and CEO of Second Harvest, who welcomed more than 175 food pantry workers to a day of training in Spring Green last Friday.

"We distributed 25 percent more in the first quarter this year than in the first quarter last year," he said.

"And many, many more (pantry workers) are saying they never expected to see some of these families coming in for help," he said.

"At the same time, we are seeing a drop off in donations from food corporations," he said.

"Our model is working with industry surplus, and the industry is finding ways to be better at what they do, and that is to have less surplus in these tough economic times."

New strategies to expand the food supply include agreements nationally between the Second Harvest network and large retailers, he said.

"We are buying more food, and to do that we have to find ways to raise money and then go out and creatively find deals, like buying bulk rice and pasta and cereal and having our volunteers bag it and label it," he said.

The key to that working is volunteers, he said, and that is another number that has risen in the past year, from 1,100 hours per month a year ago to 3,000 per month now. (A recent case: Volunteers had to candle and wash 1,400 dozen donated eggs.)

On a more esoteric level, food pantry advocates long term are hoping to change the "sell by" message on packaging to read "donate by," Mohelnitzky said.

Fuel costs hit food pantries as hard as any other sector of public service, he said, and agencies that rely on volunteer-provided transportation were doubly affected.

"The bad news is that we are delivering 60 percent of our food now," said Mohelnitzky, "and the good news is that there is food to get out."

Voters will have an opportunity on Election Day to expand on a successful program begun two years ago by Dane County and Madison clerks. All Dane County polling places will have a barrel for food donations.

There are fundraisers and donation efforts ongoing throughout the area, and at various businesses and agencies. A list of Second Harvest efforts is available on the Web site, www.secondharvestmadison.org.

State Journal reporter Megan Corbett contributed to this report.