As unemployment continues to rise, Arizona’s Department of Economic Security plans to increase public awareness of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The department will focus on reaching out to communities in an effort to increase enrollment in the program — formerly called the Food Stamp Program — by 10 percent in targeted areas of need by the end of 2009, according to an outline of the outreach plan.

Arizona residents who have never used any assistance programs before are finding themselves in need, said Steve Meissner, spokesman for the Department of Economic Security.

“A lot of people in the middle class are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said.

Since last August, about 240,000 additional Arizona residents have enrolled in SNAP, highlighting the importance of economic assistance for families in need, according to Department of Economic Security data.

Additionally, more than 571,000 Arizonans live below the poverty line but don’t yet receive food assistance.

Typically, when families hit hard times, the first place they go to for help is food-assistance programs, said ASU social work professor Elizabeth Segal.

“We look at the food-assistance program as the first indicator of an increase in need,” she said.

Additionally, unemployment is the largest factor contributing to the increase, ASU economics professor Tim James said. As unemployment increases, so will demand for a foo-assistance program, he said.

Jesse Miles, 22, of Phoenix, said he recently applied for nutrition assistance at the Department of Economic Security in Tempe after losing his job in July.

Miles currently lives with his girlfriend’s mother, but said he could soon be living in a tent because his finances are unstable.

“It’s this or starving to death,” he said with a grim laugh.

More than 900,000 people are currently signed up for SNAP, and the average benefits are about $132 per person each month, according to Department of Economic Security data.

These benefits have grown as a result of federal stimulus money from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

To receive benefits, Arizona residents must have less than $2,000 in their bank accounts, or less than $3,000 if they live with a person who is at least 60 years old or with a person who has a disability, according to a Supplemental Nutritional Assistance document.

The benefits are received electronically, function like a credit card and can be used at any grocery store, Miles said. The assistance can be used to purchase food items and cannot be used to buy cigarettes, alcohol or other non-food items, he said.

Because the program receives federal funding, it is safe from state budget cuts, James said. The state is instead cutting jobs at the Department of Economic Security and streamlining administration, James said.

It’s important to fix the entire state budget because it impacts all of these programs, Segal said, and the program must remain responsive to social needs.

“If [nutritional assistance recipients] cannot rebound quickly, it is likely they will need more services,” she said.

The challenge is to meet the increase in need for Nutritional Assistance while the state’s budget is decreasing, Meissner said.

“Our goal is to make sure people aren’t going hungry,” he said.

Reach the reporter at rvanvelz@asu.edu.