As temperatures dropped well below freezing last weekend, homeless people around Harvard Square searched for new ways to stay warm and healthy despite the bitter cold.

The National Weather Service reported record low temperatures for the weekend. The mean temperature Sunday was 2 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest it's been in several decades.

Ricardo Clayter, a homeless man who was panhandling on a Cambridge city street yesterday, said he avoided the cold of recent nights at a hospital or shelter.

"[I was at the] intake [ward] of the Boston City Hospital, sometimes at Four Point Shelter, sometimes at the Salvation Army shelter in Central Square," Clayter said.

Clayter, who was dressed in a hat and hood and new pair of boots, added that he also picks up warm clothes at the shelters.

Local shelter organizers said there was an increase in demand for beds during the cold spell.

Jim Stewart, the director of the First Church Shelter, in Harvard Square, said, "We're groaning at the seams."

The cold weekend caused the shelter to go overcapacity, Stewart said. "We had to pull out extra cots for people because we didn't want anyone to be out," he explained.

But Stewart cautioned that concern over homeless is often seasonal, melting away with the snow when warm weather comes.

"The homeless are in as bad a place in July as in January," he said.

James Birge '95, who directs the University Lutheran Church shelter for Phillips Brooks House, said that recentlythey had been referring "more people to the biggershelters in Boston, which are 300 or 400 beds."

Homeless people interviewed yesterday hadvarying opinions about what food is best forsurvival in cold weather.

Clayter said, "You're supposed to eat a lot ofbread. It gives off an awful lot of heat."

A man standing by the MBTA station, whoidentified himself as "Raheem" said, "You eatstuff to keep you warm, tea and soup."

Burrell White, who was selling Spare Change onMassachusetts Avenue yesterday, said he hadseveral ideas for escaping the cold.

"Try not to stand still too long," Whiteadvised. "I run inside the [Harvard] Coop everytwenty minutes to warm up."

But only so much can be done to escape the coldif you make your living outside.

"Wrap up, fortify yourself, and get out here init," Raheem said.

Sarah E. Scrogin contributed to thereporting of this story.