Standing in a church food line Tuesday, Narciso and Ofelia Deleon said they never needed help before to put a meal on their Thanksgiving table.

But Narciso, 49, is disabled, and Ofelia, 50, lost her job as a school aide when staff cuts were made last year. Now they're among many working people who need help for the first time.

"Thanksgiving means a lot," Ofelia said as she waited in a parking lot for food at Hope Lutheran Church in Fresno, Calif. "We have a turkey every year and family around us. Unless we get a turkey here, it won't happen this year."

There were no turkeys this year at Hope and many other food pantries, but there was desperately needed food. And there were many more working folks in food lines than before, say churches, counselors and social services groups.

They say the nation's economic downturn has become financially and emotionally devastating to the lower middle class -- people accustomed to a steady paycheck, turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts.

Economists and historians say workers are as worried now as they were in 1929 after the epic stock market crash. They agree working-class people are often the hardest hit in an economic crisis.

Jobs are eliminated, wages slashed or working hours cut back. Two-income families must get by on one salary. Savings evaporate.

Some working people don't need to stand in a food line but must scrutinize every purchase -- even Thanksgiving dinner.

Ka Yang, a case manager at Clinica Sierra Vista Fresno, says the traditional meal won't happen at her house. Yang suffered a pay cut earlier this year after her employer, Sequoia Community Health Centers, went bankrupt and was taken over by Clinica Sierra Vista.

"This year, I plan to skip Thanksgiving and just have a normal family dinner," said Yang, 37, a single mom with four children. "This Christmas, I plan to buy my kids only one gift each."

Few experts are predicting another big depression, but the parallels to 1929 are striking, they say.

"Before the Great Depression, credit was easy and people were buying," said economy professor Shawn Kantor of the University of California, Merced. "Then the credit crunch hit. The same thing is happening now."

In 1929, there was no way of knowing how bad the Great Depression would get, said history professor Nelson Lichtenstein at University of California, Santa Barbara. So working people tightened up spending, just as they are now.

"Christmas 1929 was not a happy time," he said.

Christmas 2008 is shaping up to be difficult, too. Many people have been tightening their belts for months.

"I was planning to return to college," said Yang. "But it didn't happen because I couldn't afford the tuition, gas and lunch."

Amelia Coronado, 41, of Merced is hoping for a miracle to hang onto her home. Her financial nightmare didn't start with the slumping economy, but she is now caught in a squeeze.

The single mother of two ran her own house-cleaning business for years until a wrong-way driver struck her truck on Highway 99 in February. Rescuers had to cut away pieces of her truck to get her out.

Coronado was in a coma for more than two weeks. Unable to work and make payments as she recovered, Coronado fell far behind on her mortgage. The house is supposed to be auctioned in December, she said.

The way the economy is going, she said, it's tough to feed a family, much less afford another place to live. She is still recovering from several surgeries.

"I've been in my house 14 years," she said. "I would work if I could. I'm in a bad situation. Where am I going to go?"