The latter is one of several locations where church members can buy food basics such as wheat and rice in bulk, or the members can stay and package the food to increase its shelf life to decades. At the cannery, people volunteer to can goods, including spaghetti sauce, honey and salsa, and at the end of the day, they may buy some goods at cost.

The idea is to help families stock up on food storage. Church leaders encourage members to have at least a three-month supply to guard against hunger in the event of a disaster or job loss.

"I have children. If my husband loses a job, gets laid off or something happens, I have food in the house," said Salt Lake resident Holley Smith, who was with Jean Barton on Tuesday at the Home Storage Center as they packaged sugar, milk, flour, grains, even some onions and apple slices, to rotate and build their food storage.

Meanwhile, Bountiful resident Angie Piggott came to Welfare Square to can goods, partly because of rising food costs.

"We're in kind of a recession, and I feel we need to build up and prepare," she said, "for when harder times come."

But for thousands of others, hard times already are here.

Executives looking for work through the LDS Employment Resource Services — whether they are unemployed, underemployed or wanting to change jobs — meet Mondays at LDS Business College. Ninety-five showed up this week; 54 were new faces, Veater said. About 90 new executives have come in the past two weeks combined.

But those being hardest hit by the economic downturn are those with minimal skills and construction workers, Veater said.

Employment Resource Services' service missionary Edward Mayer has seen an increase in people from Arizona, Nevada and California, where the housing downturn has been the worst.

The service seeks to link job seekers to employers, line up the job seekers with Utah College of Applied Technology or Salt Lake Community College courses to improve job skills, and help with resumes and job-interview preparation, Veater said. The service also invites employers to the facility to interview potential workers.

On Tuesday, the Utah Transit Authority came to interview about a dozen people on site. Recently, 104 job seekers crowded the office in hopes of interviewing with Intermountain Healthcare.

Carranza on Tuesday made his first visit to the office. He's hopeful his situation, at last, can turn around.

"I have my health. I believe in God," Carranza said. "So everything will be fine. I'm sure."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com