MYRTLE BEACH -- If the price of gas seems too high for you, imagine how tough it is for charities. Many of them are being forced to make major changes in the way they serve the needy.

Nearly 600 homebound seniors in Horry County get Meals on Wheels service. The meals used to be delivered every day, and they used to be hot. Now, the deliveries are three times a week and the meals aren't hot.

"We now serve frozen meals to seniors, where we will give them a package of five or seven and they put them in the freezer. Consequently, we only go out once a week to that house or twice a week, depending on the location," said Ray Fontaine, director of the Horry County Council on Aging.

That consolidation of service has cut fuel costs by about a third for the Council on Aging.

Fontaine says so far, fuel prices haven't hindered their ability to serve clients, but he says if prices reach $4.25 a gallon, it could force the agency to ask friends or family members of clients to deliver the meals.

"We'd rather not do that," he said, "because we have person to person contact with our people, and we want to continue to do that."

Helping Hand of Myrtle Beach offers emergency help to those who need it most. Sometimes, that includes debit cards to buy 5 or 10 dollars worth of gas. These days, those gas cards don't last long.

"Even now we're not in stock with the cards, because as soon as we get them in, they're gone," said Lisa Buie, with Helping Hand.

And the agency has seen the number of people who need emergency help go up.

"People are having to spend more on gas, so they have less to spend on food and that type of thing."

Fontaine hopes the day never comes when the high price of gas means fewer people get fed. "Unfortunately, the people that we serve are those that really have the least amount of resources, and they just can't afford not to get these meals."

Fontaine says many of those seniors are isolated, and the Meals on Wheels volunteer is the only person they ever see. Take away that contact, and some seniors may have to be institutionalized. That would cost us all even more money.