Wichita ? Kathleen Henshaw waited patiently in the food line for her turn to pick up a free sack of groceries at the Bread of Life pantry, a church-run charity in Wichita.

Henshaw — a fork-lift operator who lost her job at Cessna two months ago — patted her bulging tummy as she explained that she was laid off.

“Hard times,” she said softly.

Wichita is home to airplane manufacturing plants for the Boeing Co., Cessna Aircraft, Raytheon Aircraft and Bombardier Aerospace. All have laid off workers in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks during an already soft economy for the aviation industry.

Since July 1, 2001, about 14,200 Wichita aircraft workers have been laid off, not including the 1,500 Cessna job cuts expected early next year. Analysts say the layoffs reflect a drop in orders for business jets and private aircraft for the next several years.

For Henshaw, the layoff comes at an awful time; her twin boys are due to be born in April. She says her husband moved out a few weeks ago and that they plan to divorce.

“I’m just glad these places are here,” she said as she stood with hundreds of others in line for a brown paper sack filled with boxed and canned foods and a loaf of bread.

“We are ground zero for economic devastation here,” said Carolyn Bunch, executive director for KANSEL, a nonprofit agency that provides education and training programs for the unemployed.

Retail sales in the region are forecast to decline by $58.7 million next year, according to The Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University.

“We have this ‘perfect storm’ in our community,” said Patrick J. Hanrahan, president of United Way of the Plains. “It is tough, very tough.”

Not only are there drastic state government cutbacks to social services because of the budget shortfall, but even United Way is being forced to cut back its funding to agencies because it has been unable to raise as much as it needed, he said.

The faltering stock market has meant many wealthy people have not been able to donate as they have in the past, Hanrahan said. And there’s a greater need in Wichita now because of the layoffs.

Calls to United Way’s information line from people looking for help with rent or mortgage payments and utility bills are up 40 percent from a year ago. The group raised $15.1 million this year but needed $16 million to keep its programs running at current levels.

Demand at the Kansas Food Bank Warehouse in Wichita is up 30 percent this year, said Virginia White, its executive director. The agency is now providing food to 32,699 people a week in 86 Kansas counties — more than half of them living in Wichita.

“I know the face of need has changed dramatically in Kansas since Sept. 11,” White said. “We are right now going into the worst time in the economic history of this city — at least in the last 19 1/2 years since I’ve been here.”

For Thanksgiving, Bread of Life gave turkeys and food packages to 5,200 people who stood for hours in the line that wound around the building and down the street, said Herb Hudson, a pastor at the ministry.

So far this year, 71,000 people have come to Bread of Life for weekly food distributions — up from the 64,000 who came here last year, Hudson said. By the end of the Christmas distribution, that number is expected to top 75,000 people for the year, he said.

Among them was Robert Burgar, who lost his job as an aircraft assembly mechanic for Apex Engineering shortly after the terrorist attacks. His wife was pregnant at the time.

Apex is a subcontractor that makes airplane parts for the larger manufacturers. He and 13 co-workers lost their jobs in one day, and the company laid off another 14 workers in a second reduction, he said.

“If it weren’t for the food bank, I would have been in a world of hurt,” he said.

He looked for work for seven months before finding a job in June as a maintenance worker for the city, where he makes about $4 an hour less than his old aviation job.

He also volunteers at the Bread of Life pantry.