The Shepherds of Good Hope is asking the public for donations of food and money to help replenish the Ottawa soup kitchen's dwindling supplies.

Spokesman Rob Eady told CBC News that the soup kitchen's cupboards are empty and that it is having a hard time feeding the 300 people who use the facility on a daily basis.

"Our cupboards are bare, and we're in trouble," he said Thursday, opening up the shelter's food storage to reveal only some bread and relish inside.

The number of people who rely on the soup kitchen has gone up, and the number of donations has dropped, Eady said.

The soup kitchen, which last year made 700,000 meals, has been buying staples using money from the budget earmarked for other things and has been also relying on the Ottawa Food Bank and the Ottawa Mission.

Eady, who said the soup kitchen usually stocks its shelves with the help of school food drives from September to June, said he doesn't know why there are more mouths to feed these days.

But a few blocks away, the Ottawa Mission has been noticing the same phenomenon, said executive director Diane Morrison.

"Since the beginning of June, we've seen an extra 100 people a day come through our food lines, putting us up to about 1,200 a day, and that's a fair increase," she said. "There seem to be more people on the streets or more people in the community that need food."

Jerry Thibault, who was having a lunch at the Shepherds of Good Hope Thursday, said, "If I didn't have my meals, I think I'd probably be dead by now.

"If it wasn't for the Shepherds, the Sal, the Mission, a lot of people would be dead."