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BY ANN S. KIM
Blethen Maine Newspapers 08/12/2008

Keven Gillette shopped the supermarket aisles Monday with a calculator in hand. He had budgeted $60 for this trip to Paul's Food Center on Portland's Congress Street, more than a third of his monthly food stamp benefit of $160.

"The calculator is very important," he said.

Gillette, 40, generally uses his food stamp card for staples like peanut butter and coffee. His paycheck from his job as a laundry worker at the Barron Center pays for perishable items like meat and vegetables that he keeps in a mini-fridge in his room at the YMCA.

He has been in the food stamp program for about three months, since he left a supermarket cashier's position without another job in hand, not realizing at the time how hard it would be to find other employment.

Gillette is among the growing number of people in Maine and the nation as a whole turning to food stamps -- a federal program administered by state and local agencies -- in these difficult economic times.

In Maine, 181,814 people were using food stamp benefits in August, an increase of 7.2 percent from last year, according to data from the state Office of Integrated Access and Support. The benefits for August were worth $17 million.

The numbers help show that more people are finding it difficult to get by at a time when wages are not keeping up with the cost of living, said Christopher St. John, executive director of the Maine Center For Economic Policy.

"This is particularly the case for low-wage workers. Those wages at the bottom are growing much more slowly than wages in the middle or at the top," he said. "The food stamp data is just another way of telling that story."

Food stamp usage is up nationwide. In May, more than 28.44 million people in the United States were using food stamps -- an increase of more than 7.7 percent from the same time last year, according to the Washington, D.C. - based Food Research and Action Center. The center said the May 2008 figure almost set a record high, surpassed only by 29.85 million in November 2005, which included emergency assistance following hurricane season.

The weak economy, high food and fuel prices and a lack of jobs with good pay and benefits are helping drive the increase, said Ellen Vollinger, the center's food stamp director.

"I think we'd have to have a very strong economic rebound to see the trend go the other way," she said. The increases in food stamp use in some states may be due to problems reaching eligible people, Vollinger said. But Maine, she said, is known for having a high participation rate among eligible residents.

"Given that Maine has traditionally done a good job of reaching those who are eligible, it's more likely than not, that this is being driven by the economy," she said.

People qualify for food stamps through a complex formula that considers income limits, work status, assets and other factors. Adjustments in that formula and outreach efforts may play a role in the growing number of people using food stamps. But advocates for low-income people are worried that the economy is the main factor.

Besides the economy, factors like regular adjustments to the federal poverty level, the way utility costs factor into benefits and a six-year-old system to determine eligibility for multiple assistance programs simultaneously may also play a role, said Barbara Van Burgel, director of the Maine Office of Integrated Access and Support, which administers the food stamp program in the state.

Van Burgel said people working in social services are worried about how high heating costs further squeeze household budgets.

Joe Baril, a manager at Paul's Food Center, has noticed an increase in customers using food stamp cards in recent months. It's clear when customers have just received their benefit because they come in and buy large quantities, he said.

"Hopefully it lasts a month, but it usually doesn't," he said. "Toward the end of the month, they start paying us in quarters, nickels and dimes."

Stephen LaChance, a 43-year-old advocate for the homeless, has seen how his monthly food stamp benefit of $160 buys less these days.

"If you just walk around in here, food's expensive," he said. "Everything. Fruit, vegetables -- all of it." Gillette, the laundry worker, and three others at the YMCA share shopping and cooking duties. It's more economical to cook for a group and they help each other out when one of them is struggling financially, he said.

Monday was Gillette's turn to cook, and he bought sausages and peppers for the group meal. His total for two grocery bags and a gallon of milk came out to $61.92 -- just a touch over his $60 budget.

"I used to just pull things off the shelf," he said. "I don't do that anymore."

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