BOSTON -- It could be a very tough winter for thousands of low-income Massachusetts families as the price of crude oil continues to rise.

NewsCenter 5's Steve Lacy reported that a community group held a rally hoping to get more funding for home heating assistance on Wednesday.

Home heating oil is currently hovering around $2.75 a gallon -- 40 cents higher than it was at this time last year. The combined amount of state and federal home heating assistance available to Bay State families is down 33 percent from two years ago.

More than 140,000 low-income families in Massachusetts rely on fuel assistance to make it through the winter.

Carolyn Abrams, a single mother raising four children and three grandchildren in Dorchester, said no one should be forced to choose between eating and staying warm.

"Kids that are hungry, I have seen it, is very sad. They don't think the way they should think. They don't play; they sit around. I mean, they are thinking about eating," she said.

Community groups are calling on the Legislature to provide $25 million in state fuel assistance on top of an anticipated $92 million in federal assistance.

"If you have funding falling by 33 percent and you have prices going up 20 percent, what do we have? We have a very serious potential human needs crisis on our hands," said Charles Harak, of the National Consumer Law Center.

If approved, the extra $25 million would provide an additional $200 for heating help per eligible household in Massachusetts.

"Limited public resources available for fuel assistance, high overdue bills along with cold temperatures, really combine to make this a really tough year and something we are very concerned about," said Joe Diamond, of MassCap.

House Speaker Sal DiMasi said he does not want to see people left out in the cold and will meet with the governor about freeing up more fuel assistance funds.