CHICAGO | Nearly 1.5 million Illinoisans, including more than 600,000 children, turned to soup kitchens and food pantries last year, according to the head of the state's food banks.

Increased demand, however, also has brought about increased donations.

Kate Maehr, president of Feeding Illinois, an association of Illinois' eight food banks, said state food banks unloaded more than 109 million pounds of food at 200 soup kitchens and food pantries.

Hunger may be a statewide problem, but Illinois' geography hinders relief efforts in certain regions of the state. In populated areas such as Chicago and Springfield, food bank employees travel several blocks to reach their service agencies. But that's not the case in most parts of the state.

Pam Molitoris, executive director of Springfield's Central Illinois Food Bank, said distribution is exacerbated by high demand and long distances. Some of the pantries the food bank serves are 150 miles away and can only be reached once or twice a month.

Molitoris is more concerned about the toll long commutes take on her customers in rural communities.

"The larger challenge is the people accessing food," she said. "We have counties in this state, in our area where people are driving about 25 to 30 miles to get to a pantry."

Molitoris acknowledges the food bank can't solve the high unemployment rate that has led to increased demand for food assistance. But her organization is studying a wide array of possible solutions to increase access to food for the hungry, including mobile food pantries.

The recession has changed the atmosphere of food assistance. It's not just the unemployed or homeless who turn to soup kitchens and food pantries for meals. Maehr said the prolonged downturn in the economy has forced families to turn to outside assistance as they look to cut costs.

"Thirty-eight percent of the households we serve have at least one adult who is employed," she said. "This is the new state of normal in the state of Illinois."

Not only are many of the hungry employed, but some come from wealthy communities, including DuPage County where 50,000 residents turned to soup kitchens for meals last year.

Veterans also are suffering more than most groups. The 822,000 veterans in Illinois comprise about 6 percent of the state's population. But veterans make up a disproportionate amount of the state's hungry and homeless, which alarmed state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, the only female veteran in the Illinois House.

"We found out that 25 percent (of the hungry) are veterans, which is a despicable thing to say in the United States of America," she said.

Chapa LaVia and state Rep. Randy Ramey, R-West Chicago, have both pledged to work in the Legislature on behalf of organizations such as Feeding Illinois.