While most households notice rising food costs, the intensity of the pain differs with income.

The mix of a slowing economy and skyrocketing fuel prices has added to the stress on the always-vulnerable poor. But it also has racheted up the pressure on wage earners, service workers and lower middle-class families.

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Overall food prices in April were up from the previous year by 5.9 percent.

Some increases have been modest. For instance, pork prices are up just 2.1 percent in a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And breakfast cereals are up only about 2 percent. But most people want milk with their cereal and that's a problem: Milk prices increased 13.5 percent in the past year.

Families look for clever ways to make do or they simply have to do without.

WHEN IT'S ON SALE, BUY EXTRA, FREEZE IT

Wanda Woods found milk on sale, a price that seemed almost like a giveaway since milk is almost $4 a gallon.

So when Woods found milk for $2.49 a gallon, she bought extra and put it in the freezer for when she cannot get any for the granddaughter and five nieces and nephews who live with her.

"This week, I could afford sweet milk," Woods said. "Next week? I don't know."

She does the same with other foods she finds on sale. Woods bought 20 packages when hot dogs were 69 cents a pack. She bought 10 packages of sandwich meat when it was on sale.

The extra goes into the freezer.

And the six children in Woods' house get eggs for breakfast just once a month.

"I've tried to get back to the old ways [of eating]," Woods said. "We eat a lot of biscuits. We don't eat a lot of meat because it's so high. ... We don't eat junk food."

SOMETIMES, DOING WITHOUT ONLY OPTION

Dwight Love said he and his daughter and five grandchildren go without cereal for breakfast when they can't buy milk.

On those mornings, they have sandwiches for breakfast instead because they almost always have bread, which several grocery stores donate to the coop where he is a member.

"If I want my cereal, I try to even out [the milk]," Love said. "If I don't have no milk; I don't have no cereal."

Love earns $9 an hour at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he works in housekeeping. And he doesn't have much left after he pays for rent and utilities and buys a MARTA pass.

When the money is gone, Love says, there is nowhere else to cut spending "so I just wait another day" before going to the grocery store.

'YOU JUST HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO DO IT'

Kenny Redding is trying to feed his six children on the disability check he receives. He does not get any other assistance.

"You just have to know how to do it," said Redding, a member of the Georgia Avenue Community Ministries co-op, which allows him several boxes of food for $3 twice a month.

"Everything has gone up," he said. "A lot of things I used to buy, I don't buy. Like pork. I eat a lot of spaghetti."

And in the exceptionally lean times, he gets what he can afford at the grocery store and mixes in canned vegetables he gets at the co-op.

"You just have to know how to do it," Redding said.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Hundreds of organizations provide groceries to those who can't stretch their money far enough or that feed the hungry. Here is a sampling:

• Atlanta Community Food Bank, which supplies donated food to 800 nonprofit agencies in North Georgia — 404-892-3333, acfb.org
• Buckhead Christian Ministry — 404-239-0058; helpline 404-239-0038, buckheadchristianministry.org
• The Georgia Avenue Community Ministry — 404-688-0871, www.gacm.org
• Atlanta Union Mission — 404-588-4000, www.atlantaunionmission
• .org
• The Sullivan Center — 404-753-0531, www.thesullivancenter.org

— Rhonda Cook