Stephen Najarian, a cashier at the B.J.’s store in the Centre of New England, checks out a customer. All the B.J.’s check-out lines have signs saying that they accept EBT cards which are used by food-stamp recipients.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

More than 10 percent of all Rhode Islanders use food stamps to make ends meet in the troubled economy, prompting more retailers to open their doors to those customers using the benefits.

Big-boxed retailers, such as Target Stores and BJs Wholesale Club, have joined supermarkets expanding their operations nationally to accept food stamps, renamed EBTs, — electronic benefits transfer cards.

The EBT works just like a debit card. The recipient is given a dollar amount of benefits per month to buy groceries with that card. Other merchants, such as Whole Foods Stores, have always honored EBT cards. CVS Pharmacy accepts these cards at 50 Rhode Island stores and 5,000 nationwide. The drugstore chain continues to add stores that accept the card.

Since January, the number of Rhode Island-area merchants has reached 792, increasing 9 percent from October 2008.

“The growth has been pretty phenomenal this past year. Since January there has been an increase of 258 merchants that now are approved to accept,” said Donalda Carlson, the associate director of Individuals and Family Support at the state Department of Human Services.

Retailers are responding to statistics coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which collects data on food stamp benefits.

The number of Rhode Islanders using the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program [SNAP], formerly the Food Stamp Program, has increased about 24 percent, from 87,285 to 107,891, from June 2008 to June 2009.

That number has been climbing steadily, up to roughly 117,000 persons — a record high in Rhode Island, Carlson said.

BJs began accepting EBT benefits in April.

“The request to use them from America has really grown. The ultimate goal is to give them additional choices in how they put food on their tables,” said company spokeswoman Kelly McFall. “The food category is one of biggest sales. It’s a smart thing for us to do [and] a nice thing for our members to give them the option of stretching their benefits. There is much more savings to realize.”

The Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees 15 domestic nutrition assistance programs, phased out the food coupon system in June and now only disburses benefits via EBT cards. Using food coupons was a complicated process for retailers and uncomfortable for consumers. The EBT card streamlines the process for everyone, said Michael Cerio, communications manager for Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

“I think the stigma has started to fade,” Cerio said. “That has played a big part. It’s an amazing economic engine.”

Retailers who accept the benefits expand their customer base, Cerio said. There are a lot of people who are not big supporters of social service or assistance programs, but the federal dollars coming in through the added SNAP enrollment will only help the state and create jobs.

The increased enrollment represents $16 million a month in expenditures to the local economy, according to data from Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Carlson said.

She said that over a course of a year that figure in an average month amounts to $144 million. “It ebbs and flows. The fact that it goes back into the local economy generates revenue into the tax base,” Carlson said.

Henry Shelton, director of the George Wiley Center, a community organization in Pawtucket, also agrees that using the EBT programs is a way to spur economic development.

“It’s to their economic benefit, to accept food stamps. They can increase their volume of work. They are being good business people,” Shelton said.

LeeAnn Bridgio, who owns Bridgio’s Fresh Market, with brothers Mark and Bruce, said the third-generation family business has accepted food stamps since 1975. Bridgio said the way the government promotes the SNAP program, as a way of eating healthy and families eating together are making the idea more palatable for everyone.

“It’s better for the consumer. This gives families some leeway,” Bridgio said. “There are people who have never used food stamps. You feel bad that people can’t feed their families. We’ve always tried to help.”

lsparks@projo.com