More and more cash-strapped white-collar parents are asking for help to feed their families due to the soaring cost of living, according to two of the Island's charities.

The Coalition for the Protection of Children and the Salvation Army, which both dish out food and vouchers to the needy, have reported a noticeable increase in requests for assistance and say many of those asking don't fit the traditional mould.

Sherri Simmons, from the Coalition, told The Royal Gazette: "We are getting people who work at the hospital, people who work at the banks. Jobs that people would not traditionally link with poverty.

"We get a lot of families with small children and what happens is that after they have paid their rent there is not much money left over. It's been a very difficult thing for them to do that, to be able to say: 'I can't put food on the table'."

Sheelagh Cooper, from the charity, said it had seen a 32 percent increase in the past year in the number of people asking for help and that 80 percent of people requesting food had jobs.

Lynn Gordon, family services/thrift manager at the Salvation Army, said she had also seen a rise in requests.

"We are basically set up as an emergency service," she said. "I have found those white-collar workers have come and then they get back on their feet.

"They have told me maybe they've moved and they have to come up with their first month's rent and deposit. They never thought they would see themselves at a place like the Salvation Army. I will see them again because if they can't afford to pay their rent, they will end up moving."

Ms Gordon said the high costs of rent and food were undoubtedly to blame for the rise in requests. "They say: 'I used to be able to shop and get everything I needed but it doesn't go as far as it used to'."

Mrs. Simmons said: "The crux of the matter is that, aside from the escalating food prices, it's the rent. Once you have paid that, you don't have anything left. These are the people who fall between the cracks.

"Wages have not kept pace with inflation and rents have sky rocketed. It took off in the 90s. It left thousands upon thousands of hardworking people behind."

Mrs. Simmons said many white-collar workers were not necessarily deemed "poor enough" to obtain financial assistance from Government but were struggling to survive.

"A big thing is getting food stuff for lunches for children," she said. "People may be able to handle the breakfast end but lunch is a big issue. People don't want to send their children to school with no lunch."

She said it was important for people to remember that "just because you don't have much money does not ipso facto make you a bad parent".

Ms Gordon said: "People think it's lazy people who don't want to work. It's not. The majority of them are just trying to make ends meet."

Claudette Fleming, executive director of Age Concern, said high food prices remained a concern for seniors but they were, largely, finding ways to survive. Many have paid off their mortgages so do not have that large monthly expense.

"Those who are in the very low socio-economic area will struggle with the food prices and so on," she said. "But generally seniors are doing what they have always done and they are conserving, they are not eating out as much, they are finding ways to minimise their food costs. It is a generation that has learnt to survive on a shoestring budget."