HFTH director Elisabeth Omilami is flanked by DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown, left, and Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker.

The hungry need help now more than last year or the year before that, Elisabeth Omilami said Nov. 12.

Donations to Omilami’s organization, Hosea Feed the Hungry (HFTH), have decreased 35 percent since the country suffered a recession that began last year and has only recently begun to creep out of. Meanwhile, the number of families HFTH serves has increased by 300 percent in the same year, she said.

“Corporate sponsors like these are critical to the health of Hosea,” she said as representatives from national food companies and grocers stood next to a series of tractor trailers filled with donated frozen turkeys. “They ensure that yet another year, people will know that someone cares.”

Representatives from companies including Publix, Kroger, Sodexo, Harry Norman Realtors and AT&T watched as turkeys and other food their companies donated was stored in the DeKalb County Jail until the night before Thanksgiving when the food will be distributed to local families in need.

HFTH, based in Atlanta, is the Southeast’s largest food bank serving families and individuals directly and is celebrating its 40th year, according to a HFTH statement. It plans to serve 250,000 people worldwide in 2010, an increase of more than 55 percent over last year.

The charity served more than 8,000 people last Thanksgiving, Omilami said. The food for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner at Turner Field will be prepared in the jail on Nov. 25. DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown said the organization still needs food and volunteers to serve on Nov. 26.

“There’s going to be plenty of work to do,” he said.

HFTH still needs food items including yams, corn, breads and desserts, Omilami said.

“We’re much more than holiday dinners, but we thank God for holiday dinners,” she said.

For more information, visit www.hoseafeedthehungry.com.