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Diane Giese, the executive director of the Seacoast Family Food Pantry at City Hall in Portsmouth, shows off one of the the pantry's five food storage rooms on Wednesday. The pantry is about to run low on food as August, the month with the most requests for food, approaches.Scott Yates/syates@seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH — Diane Giese said she can't remember the last time the cupboards at the Seacoast Family Food Pantry were devoid of basics like beans, pasta and cans of tuna.

A simple walk through the organization's storage rooms these days shows the community cares, but suggests it's also struggling.

There is a burgeoning amount of meat and produce, generously donated by area supermarkets and local farmers, Giese said it's the bare necessities that are missing from the pantry these days.

As the executive director of the local nonprofit, Giese said it isn't the fact that the community is not offering help, but rather that more and more families are seeking help.

Eighty percent of the year-round supplemental food pantry's clients come from Portsmouth, but the nonprofit also serves residents from Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, New Castle, Newington, North Hampton, Rye, Seabrook and Stratham.

This summer has been particularly difficult, said Giese.

With families unable to depend on free and reduced lunches from school, Giese said, more and more residents have poured into the nonprofit's door.

"We're getting new families in all the time," she said. "Older families are needing to come in more often, as well."