WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A ham, or perhaps a turkey, and certainly gifts under the tree. All are components of a happy Christmas season.

But this year, with rising energy costs and a drooping housing market causing many to tighten the belt, there’s a little less cheer to go around for the Washington area’s poor.

The Washington-area Toys for Tots campaign, which serves the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, might not have enough gifts for as many as 5,000 children.

The deadline for signing up for Toys for Tots gifts passed Dec. 13, but volunteers for the U.S. Marine-run charity are still receiving hundreds of calls each day from parents looking for help, said Master Sgt. Timothy Butler, who heads the local campaign.

“There have been fewer donations this year,” Butler said. “You can blame it on the economy, or perhaps recalled toys.”

The Arlington and Washington dioceses’ Catholic Charities also are struggling with supply and demand.

“There’s enough to go around, but less to go around” than previous years, said Stephen Luteran, executive director of the Catholic Charities in Arlington, which serves Northern Virginia.

And there are still bare refrigerators at the Capital Area Food Bank, which distributes food to more than 700 food pantries and community kitchens in D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland.

It’s mostly changes in the food industry that have caused the shortfall, said food bank Chief Operating Officer Brian Smith.

Rising energy costs have increased demand for agriculture-based fuels such as ethanol, and that in turn has boosted the cost of food as farmers grow fewer crops for food and more for ethanol. In response, the food industry has become more efficient, shipping fewer groceries more frequently and selling unused goods to dollar-store chains.

The result is that grocery-store donations, the food bank’s primary source, have declined sharply in recent years, Smith said. Meanwhile, financial donations dropped this year, he added.

To keep up, the food bank is in the midst of a capital campaign for a new $36 million building with more refrigerator space and a sanitary room for repackaging bulk items. Currently, the bank often turns away bulk donations because it has no space to break them down.

Having enough donations isn’t just an issue this time of year, Smith said.

“It’s more on people’s mind at this time of year ... but it’s an ongoing challenge for us.”

Emptier shelves

How donations to the Capital Area Food Bank have fallen:

» 50 percent decline in grocery-store donations

» 25 percent drop in financial donations

» 6 percent drop in food donations

fklopott@dcexaminer.com