A report showing food stamp usage has increased 49 percent in the state from 2002 to 2005 and has jumped more than 60 percent in two of the state’s more affluent coastal counties – Knox and Hancock – created gloom last week about the state’s seemingly intractable poverty problem.

As it turns out, the state is just doing a much better job at reaching people who already were eligible for the program, but not taking advantage of it.

Such a good job, in fact, that Maine this year received a $440,000 bonus from the federal government for signing more people up and is in the top three nationally in terms of getting benefits to eligible people.

That high performance bonus award will be used to keep improving outreach for the program, which is funded 100 percent with federal dollars.

“It’s not that more are eligible, but more of the potential (recipients) are being reached,” said Barbara VanBurgel, director of the Office of Integration and Support for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees food stamp eligibility.

VanBurgel said that once the food stamp usage numbers hit the news, as part of a “Poverty in Maine 2006” study done by the Margaret Chase Smith Center, she started looking at trends.

“We did some analysis of the increase and really tracking poverty by the amount of food stamps in a county or state is probably not a good comparison,” she said. Overall eligibility does measure poverty, she said, but that has not changed dramatically since 2002.

Participation in the program has grown, however, to 15.7 percent of households statewide and 9.7 percent in places like Hancock County. Still, Hancock County has the lowest percentage of households using food stamps in the entire state.

The food stamp usage by county, with the poorest counties listed first, is: 24.5 percent for Washington; 21.4 percent for Aroostook; 23.9 percent for Somerset; 18.3 percent for Piscataquis; 17.5 percent for Franklin; 18 percent for Penobscot; 18.4 percent for Waldo; 20.1 percent for Oxford; 20.8 percent for Androscoggin; 17.3 percent for Kennebec; 13 percent for Knox; 9.7 percent for Hancock; 10.5 percent for Lincoln; 12 percent for Cumberland; 10.2 percent for Sagadahoc; and 10.9 percent for York.

VanBurgel said the federal government started pushing states to find those people eligible, but not signing up. Maine built and started using a new computer system in 2002 that makes it easier to cross-qualify people for food stamps based on eligibility for more than 20 other government programs like Medicaid or Drugs for the Elderly.

“One of the big things we did is we integrated our system so when someone applies for one program, we screen them for food stamps,” she said. “If it appears they’re eligible, we ask them if they want to be considered.”

Maine, like other states, also now uses a kind of food stamp debit card to let recipients pay for their purchases, rather than using the old paper coupon system.

“I think the electronic benefit card has assisted in taking some of the stigma away from food stamps so people are willing to apply,” VanBurgel said.

The program in 2005 distributed more than $164 million in benefits in Maine as compared to $103 million in 2002. Looking back, the program distributed around $50 million in benefits in 1979, $51 million in 1989 and jumped to $87 million in 1999.

The program is administered out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and covers only food, not things like soap or even toothpaste. People are eligible if their net income is below 130 percent of the federal poverty guideline.

Ann Acheson of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, who authored the report, said she knew dramatic increases in food stamp use would draw attention and was aware of the potential overemphasis of the percentage increase in places like Hancock and Knox Counties.

National Public Radio even picked up the story for its Marketplace show. Still the program was being underused in the first study she did in 2003.

“Hancock County had a relatively low usage of food stamps compared to other (poverty) measures,” in 2003, she said. “I couldn’t explain it then and I can’t explain it now.”

“If you take a look at the increase in food stamp use, it’s a good news and bad news story. The state is reaching more people in need. The bad news is that they’re still there,” Acheson said.