Keeping the wolf from one’s door: As many families prepare for a Thanksgiving feast, others face hardship. Here’s how to help.

Hunger is often likened to a wolf at the door — ravenous, dangerous and ever-present. Such a foe can be held at bay for a short periods but often not for long. People who woke up today without the benefit of stocked holiday cupboards, who do not have refrigerators brimming with the makings of Thanksgiving dinner from ready-to-roast turkeys with giblet gravy to green bean casserole, who lack even a few dollars in their pocket to buy enough to tide them over know the wolf lies in waiting. In the field of public health, this is described more exactly as “food insecurity” or the lack of access to a sufficient quantity of affordable nutrition. In Maryland, a state of 6 million people, it is estimated that one out of three people, or 2 million total, qualify as food insecure.