SOUTH BEND — South Bend's Center for the Homeless says it's seeing a record number of children and they're asking for your help to take care of them.

“We’ve never seen so many kids in poverty before. We had nearly 60 kids Sunday night. The average age of homelessness in this country today is 7 and it’s dropping. So we have to do everything we can to break the cycle and we need the community’s support,” said Center for the Homeless spokesperson Jacqueline Kronk.

The Center says it needs non-metal high chairs, cribs, and infant formula, as well as crib sheets, a baby monitor, and pull-ups.

You can bring those items to the Center for the Homeless at 813 S. Michigan Avenue in South Bend.

A report last year showed childhood poverty is growing nearly twice as fast in Indiana than the nation.

The annual Kids Count report says 17 percent of children under the age of 18 lived in poverty in 2005 compared to 14 percent in 2000.

The increase is being blamed on the state's economy, more children living in single-parent homes, and an increase in immigrant households.