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Carlene Jannone is picking up food at the Reaching Out community services food pantry. Jannone, who is on disability, says she would be in trouble without it.

"Between the rent and the cost of living, you just can't make it in New York, it's very hard, so by the second week of the month, I'm without food," said Jannone.

Reaching Out is one of the 40 food pantries and soup kitchens in the city that benefits from the Common Cents Penny Harvest, now in its 18th year. Last year, some 900 public and private schools in the city and elsewhere chose to take part, and collected nearly $800,000 in pennies. The money was then donated to charities chosen by students with the help of their teachers.

"What begins as bringing a bag of pennies into school, ends up with helping save a food pantry," said Teddy Gross, Common Cents founder.

In the case of reaching out, which has seen the number of people it serves double over the past year due to the bleak economy, neighborhood schools donated more than 5,000 much needed dollars to the organization.

"In the beginning of the summer, we basically had no funding to get us through our operation. When we found out almost 11 schools chose us, to support us through the penny harvest, that really got us through those months that were really difficult," said Thomas Neve, Reaching Out Community Services.

Common Cents penny harvest is helping similar programs all across the city. Meanwhile, the founder of Common Cents says they've had to tighten their belt in response to tough economic times.

"We're having to look harder for support because while the program is inexpensive, we do create curriculum, we do train our teachers, we do support them, the pennies need to be picked up and processed and turned into dollars," said Gross.

In turn, they can help folks like Ernie Riggio, who also depends on the Reaching Out food pantry.

"We wouldn't eat as much and we wouldn't have as much without this place," said Riggio.

To find out more about the Common Cents Penny Harvest, visit CommonCents.org.