"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God," counsels the reading from the Letter to the Philippians this Sunday. In these anxious times people in financial need are making their requests known in a new way: online.

There are thousands of appeals on Craigslist.com and many websites devoted to begging, according to a report by National Public Radio. Some of the requests are undoubtedly scams but many appear to be legitimate pleas for help.

Further evidence of how difficult things are for people came from a U.S. Conference of Mayors report released Tuesday that shows a 26 percent jump in demand for hunger assistance over the past year.

Middle-class families as well as the uninsured, elderly, working poor, and homeless people increasingly looked for help with hunger, which was mainly fueled by unemployment, high housing costs, and low wages, the report said.

Looking ahead to 2010, cities said they expect it will be difficult to meet increased demands for food due to the impact of state and local budget cuts, a decrease in grocery store donations, and higher food costs.

In order to avoid scams, people wishing to respond to online appeals are encouraged by Craigslist and other websites to deal only with people one can meet in person in a public place and to make any payments through a service such as Paypal instead of by check or money order.

Source: Articles by Pam Fessler for National Public Radio and Karen Pierog for Reuters