The ones in the worst shape are the first to hurt, and the first who come in for help at the Broadway Assistance Center.

They are low- or no-income people who live from Speer Boulevard to Federal, from Colfax to Alameda, the area the center serves out of borrowed space at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Galapago Street off West Sixth Avenue.

And their pleas are increasing. "We're getting twice as many requests for help," said Betsy Stapp, center director.

The center feeds people for free on Thursday nights. Two days a week, people in the area can come in for groceries, clothes, toiletries. There's a budget, heavily dented in this bum economy, for rent assistance and stuff like that.

The Thursday feed isn't fancy, but filling and wholesome.

"We've fed double the number of people at Thanksgiving and the Thursday after - about 600," Stapp said.

Contributions are down, but Stapp looks more to the positive. "We are blessed with some wonderful donors," she said.

Just after she said that Wednesday, a volunteer from Pax Christi Catholic Church in Highlands Ranch brought in two big plastic sacks of blankets, two huge boxes filled with new socks, a box of batteries and other items.

The center is supported by foundations, private citizens and 15 churches. It's nondenominational. About three of every four of the 5,500 people who live in the service area are poorly educated and low income, according to the center.

Awhile back, I was talking to a woman waiting for food that allows her and her husband to eat most days. She was older - face wrinkled, eyes tired - and looking at the floor.

What would you do without this place, I asked. The woman didn't answer, but her eyes showed fear. She opened her mouth, but didn't speak. She just shook her head sideways.

Stapp recalled a customer who had just finished a chemotherapy treatment at Denver Health.

"He ran by my office to get to the bathroom because he was sick to his stomach. He's living outside," Stapp said. "I don't know what chemotherapy is like. But what's got to be worse is chemotherapy and living outside."

Stapp said she was talking with an architect who was cut back to three days a week and is trying to figure out how to live on 60 percent of what he had been making. "That's the kind of people we're going to be serving," Stapp said.

She is confident the center won't be turning people in the neighborhood away. But she and volunteers are encouraging them to go to other food and clothing banks.

Because of the recession, Stapp and crew are enforcing the boundaries. She booted one guy because he lives outside the area. He is suing her.

"He still comes by for the Thursday dinner," Stapp said.