The first Thanksgiving any family hosts is filled with nervous excitement.

So imagine hosting your first Thanksgiving where thousands of families are dependent on you for food for their own tables — that’s a tall order. Add to that the downturn in the economy that has even more households short on money this holiday season, and it could almost create a recipe for a food distribution nightmare.

But not so at the Georgia Mountain Food Bank, which is weathering its first full holiday season in its new warehouse just fine.

“We had just gotten started with a place to hang our hats last October, so this is the first year we’re really getting started,” said Kay Blackstock, the food bank’s executive director.

The holiday season for local food pantries is pretty crazy, she said. Those are the smaller organizations around town that distribute food directly to the people who need it. Some food pantries are part of a church’s ministry and others are part of a volunteer effort.

The food pantries order food from the Atlanta Community Food Bank and it is shipped to the Georgia Mountain Food Bank, where the agencies pick it up. This saves the smaller organizations time — and a drive to Atlanta. Plus, the food bank organizes and distributes food from local food drives, too.

Much of Blackstock’s time is spent coordinating boxes of food coming in from a food drive — or, sending out empty ones to be filled.

“We don’t really hold inventory here, so whatever we get we pump right back out,” she said. “We’re sending right at about 550,000 pounds (of food) right out the door down here, and that’s food we’ve gotten from Atlanta and then food drive food as well.”

There are certain nonperishable items that are always needed, Blackstock said, despite the supply from Atlanta Community Food Bank or food drives. Flour, sugar, cooking oil, peanut butter, soups and canned meats, fruits and vegetables are always needed.

“Canned meats, fruits and vegetables work the best because often our partner agencies do not have a freezer or refrigerated space to hold a lot of frozen or refrigerated products,” she said. “Typically, on the bulk product donations, we shoot for the stuff that has the most nutritional value to it. We try to avoid chips and candy and soft drinks and go for the protein.”

Last fall, local food pantries saw double-digit increases in needy families. This year, some agencies note that the need has slowed or is at about the same level it was last Thanksgiving.

But that doesn’t negate the fact that there are still thousands more needy families than in previous years, and the numbers aren’t going down.

The Rev. Mike Walston, director of church and community ministries at the Chattahoochee Baptist Association, said the organization will send out about 1,000 more boxes of food this year compared with last year. At the CBA’s food pantry, which partners with the Georgia Mountain Food Bank to receive food, families can “shop” for bread, sweets, meats and other items.

“When people come here for food, we give them a basket of food, which includes about 22 different kinds of cans of food; we give them eggs, we give them bread, we give them several different types of meat, soft drinks,” he said. “When they leave here, they’re loaded down.”

But still, food drives among the 70 churches that make up the CBA have lightened the load this holiday season.

“Our churches in our community have really helped us come up and meet the challenge,” Walston said. “A lot of food drives, a lot of cash donations. They’ve just really helped us meet the challenge.”

Juda Engelmayer, director of communications and customer service for Angel Food Ministries, said requests for their holiday food boxes — a Thanksgiving meal for an entire family that sells for $36 — have doubled this year.

Founded in Monroe, Angel Food Ministries provides boxes of food to needy families for $30 each. Last year, they sold 40,000 special Thanksgiving boxes throughout the holiday season. This year, the number has hit 80,000 by Thanksgiving alone.

“And that’s not our regular routine boxes, that’s just the holiday box,” Engelmayer said. “It’s on top of everything else. People felt the need to feed their family for Thanksgiving — they went to us as well, because of the price.”

But that’s one aspect of food pantries and food banks — they are constantly preparing for the demand.

Blackstock noted that while they are constantly moving food through the South Hall warehouse — or, while she is constantly driving to pick up the proceeds from local food drives — it is all part of what they expect.

“Hunger doesn’t take a holiday — that’s something you hear in food banking a lot,” she said. “People think more during the holidays about doing food drives. We have 13 businesses and organizations doing food drives right now, and that’s going to be a huge asset to our partner agencies — but something we need to remember during the year.”