When a nonprofit that provides emergency assistance finds itself in need of emergency assistance, that’s a sign that times are tougher than many of us may be able — or willing — to recognize.

The closure of York County Food Rescue has been averted, thanks to a last-minute flood of cash donations. But the food program still has to wrestle with the increased demand that brought it to the brink of collapse. And statewide, food banks and similar programs are heading into the traditionally busy fall season with an added challenge: serving the thousands of Maine adults who recently lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits because of a reinstated state work requirement.

Maine residents have demonstrated their willingness to reach out to those who are struggling. It’s unfortunate that state officials haven’t followed this example.

York County Food Rescue collects food donated by grocery stores and the federal commodities program and distributes it free of charge to nearly 50 food pantries, soup kitchens and social service agencies. Last year, the nonprofit gave about 1.5 million pounds of food to 50,000 people; the amount of food distributed this year is expected to surpass that total.

Food pantries are serving a greater number of individuals and families, despite the falling unemployment rate and other signs of an improving economy. “The cost of everything is going up and people aren’t making more money,” Kristine Jenkins, coordinating director of Partners for a Hunger-Free York County, told the Portland Press Herald.

And because of a state mandate, already-needy Mainers are going to have an even harder time putting food on their plate. Suspended during the recession, the work requirement was put back in place effective Oct. 1. Now an estimated 12,000 childless Maine adults who aren’t pregnant or disabled must seek and get jobs in order to qualify for food stamps — regardless of the slow pace of the recovery in rural Maine. At 7.9 percent, for example, Washington County’s August unemployment rate was the highest in the state, followed closely by Piscataquis, Aroostook and Somerset counties.

These same areas also top another survey: the Feeding America ranking of counties by the percentage of residents with uncertain access to adequate nutrition, a condition known as “food insecurity.” Washington County leads this list, at 17.6 percent; Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset are tied for second place, at 16.7 percent. Even in York County, on the more-prosperous southern Maine coast, 13.5 percent of residents don’t know when they’ll get their next good meal. The statewide food insecurity rate is 15.5 percent, or about 200,000 people: 18th in the country and first in New England.

The crisis at York County Food Rescue has prompted dozens of people to reach into their wallets to help; the program’s director says that donations received Monday and Tuesday will allow it to stay open while it awaits grant funding.

But the nonprofit, like others across the state, is addressing a problem that hasn’t been resolved and a problem that’s too big for the charity sector to handle on its own. The state should reverse its new food assistance restrictions and acknowledge its leading role in ensuring that all Mainers have access to a very basic need.