CARRBORO - Approximately 550 walkers took advantage of a cool, breezy Sunday afternoon in Carrboro to walk four miles to raise money and awareness of world hunger.

This year's participants in the annual CROP Hunger Walk organized by the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service likely passed the $1 million mark for money raised to combat global hunger, said John Dorward, IFC's associate director.

The IFC, which runs the food pantry and community kitchen in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, needed to raise $53,000 to do that. It has been holding CROP Hunger Walks for more than 20 years.

CROP Hunger Walks help support Church World Service, particularly the development of hunger-fighting efforts of partner agencies in about 80 countries.

In addition, each local CROP Hunger Walk can choose to return up to 25 percent of the funds it raises to local hunger-fighting programs. Money and food donations continue to be needed locally, said Chris Moran, IFC's executive director.

The IFC pantry has seen a 35 percent increase in demand for groceries so far this fiscal year and a 48 percent increase in need for monetary support.

"The real issue for me is food, because what we have is a situation where we already had a lot of people who are at the bottom of the economic pole, working hard for very little," Moran said. "And now with the recession -- gas prices -- those economic burdens are immediately placed on the back of the economically challenged."

Food banks and charity kitchens and pantries have felt that effect across the Triangle.

In Wake County, the demand is up 20 percent overall for the year, said Anne Burke, executive director of Urban Ministries of Wake County.

In Durham, the food pantry served almost 50 percent more people in February compared with the same month last year, said Lloyd Schmeidler, executive director of Urban Ministries of Durham.

In February 2007, the food pantry there served 287 people. This February, that number rose to 429. The amount of food distributed jumped from 2,232 pounds to 3,062.