The Black Friday sales this year are supposed to be spectacular. More toys for the kids! Or maybe, just maybe, more clothes for the poor and food for the hungry.

Things are bad this year for a lot of people. It’s not just your hard-core poor who are showing up at shelters and food pantries. It’s middle- and working-class people who have suffered reductions in income. Suddenly, they’ve found themselves in need of assistance.

“We’re seeing a lot more people that this is the first time they’ve come,” Lisa Christie, director of the Nashua Soup Kitchen, told this newspaper this week, “because they got laid off or had their hours cut. As the economy’s gotten worse and worse, we’re seeing way more people.”

Charlie Sherman, executive director of New Horizons for New Hampshire, told us that shelter use is up 12 percent and food pantry use is up 12 percent this year. It’s worse in other parts of New England. In Maine, food pantry use is up between 20 percent and 50 percent, according to MaineToday.com.

Understandably, some people who have worked all their lives don’t want to advertise their need. They’re too proud. They show up at the Salvation Army store or the food pantry hoping to get in and out without getting noticed. They aren’t going to knock on your door asking for a handout, even though they could use one. They turn to the network of local charities that do the asking for them. And, of course, there are the poor, whom you might never meet, who use the same resources and always need a hand.

When you’re out shopping this Christmas season, whether it’s today or in the next few weeks, why don’t you schedule some time to make a donation to a local charity? There are families who need food, shelter and clothing, and children who need toys. If you can give, please do. Our favorite charity is the Union Leader Santa Fund for the Salvation Army, which takes donations at The Santa Fund c/o New Hampshire Union Leader, P.O. Box 9555, Manchester, NH 03108 or online at www.unionleader.com/santafund.

Maybe you have a favorite of your own. If not, maybe this year you can find one.