OTTUMWA — Living below the poverty line can be especially tough during an Iowa winter — and this year may be tougher than last.

Last winter, the Ottumwa Salvation Army provided Thanksgiving meals for 375 people.

“This year, it was 525,” said Capt. Jamie Pennigton.

Requests for other forms of aid are up, too, he said, a consistent pattern across Ottumwa and southeast Iowa.

Southern Iowa Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit public assistance group, helps multiple counties in southern Iowa. Requests for heating assistance, for example, have increased.

“It’s not going to be a pretty year utility wise,” said Judy Songer, family development director at SIEDA.

“We know it’s going to be worse in energy,” said Phyllis Runnells, the organization’s executive director. “The prices are going up and the money we have to give them hasn’t. Maybe we’re going to give them $350 in energy assistance. That’s not going to pay their bill for the winter.”

“Especially propane,” said Songer. “The award we are giving is not even enough for a ‘minimum fill’ of propane.”

“The ‘minimum fill’ may be $500, $600,” said Runnells. “It’s hard to come up with that money.”

She said propane is running $1 per unit higher this winter. Rural renters and homeowners don’t always have a choice on what kind of fuel they use, and the “mom and pop” distributors don’t always have the financial resources to put customers on a payment plan: They need to pay for their product.

Another higher-priced fuel: gasoline.

“The cost of gas affects everything,” said Kris Knouf, director of the Ecumenical Lord’s Cupboard in Ottumwa.

She said that not only are food prices going up, people have less money to buy food. All the agency heads agreed higher gas prices are driving residents to their offices.

“When we have increased expenses at the gas pumps, we’re seeing a trickle down,” said Pennington. “If the average person pays their rent and car and has maybe $200 in their wallet until they get their next paycheck,” that has to pay for everything from food to prescription medicine ...

“They go to the gas pump, that’s an extra $40 a month, and there are people who don’t have that,” he said. “Then you have to ask, ‘Do I pay for gas, do I pay for food, do I put Christmas presents under the tree?’ People are having to choose between going hungry [but] getting gas to go to work, or do they buy food.”