From credit counseling to church outreach programs to neighborhood libraries, the strained economy is spurring more people to seek help with food, finances and dealing with the anxiety of an uncertain future.

Where does a family, perhaps one that never before needed to ask for help, go to find a food pantry, child-care assistance, job training, clothing or financial counseling?

And can they just show up somewhere, hands extended, or do they need to be processed and referred to by an agency?

It depends. “;Food banks,”; for example, don't deal with individuals - they give the food to other nonprofits to distribute, while “;food pantries,”; often run by churches, will give the food directly to those in need.

  There is a one-stop resource center that can direct people to specific government and nonprofit agencies and groups and let them know what's required. It's as simple as dialing 2-1-1.

The Aloha United Way's 211 program, a free information and referral service available 24 hours a day, provides a database of thousands of health and human services programs.

There actually are 92 call centers for social services in the state.

But all of them are small and specialized, except for 211, said Norm Baker, AUW's vice president of community building.

211 can connect callers to 4,000 different services provided by 1,700 organizations and agencies. That includes all the state and city departments, the starting points for many services in the community.

  An average of 40,000 to 45,000 calls are made to 211 every year, Baker said.

Each month, the three highest requests have been for emergency food, emergency shelter and, lately, for utilities.

“;Sometimes it's (for) rent or mortgage, but lately it's help with utilities,”; Baker said.

“;It's starting to be a much larger problem in the community.”;

In addition to phone calls, the AUW's 211 Web site - http://www.auw211.org - also receives about 84,000 to 96,000 hits a year.

Baker noted the Web site can even tell someone what bus to take to get to an agency.

What 211 does is save people valuable time.

“;That's basically what we're trying to do with the whole service. When someone's in need, we don't want them thumbing their way through phone books,”; Baker said.

“;We want them to find help as quickly as possible.”;