Theresa Dubois, left, of Central Falls, speaks at a State House news conference about the need to hire more food stamp workers. At right is Henry Shelton, director of the George A. Wiley Center.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Antipoverty advocates yesterday asked Governor Carcieri to hire a dozen new workers to help those who rely on food stamps.

State Health Department employees already work long hours and on Saturdays, said Henry Shelton, director of the George A. Wiley Center in Pawtucket. But the food stamp offices need to be open longer, and South County needs a permanent branch, he said.

“The circle of government doesn’t extend south of Warwick,” Shelton said. “It’s a no man’s land.”

The push for more staff comes at a time when more families are going hungry, said Shelton, who visited a Charlestown food pantry Wednesday night. “There were 60 or 70 people standing in line to get food,” he said, adding, “one out of eight Rhode Islanders is now hungry. It used to be one out of 11.”

Fred Sneesby, the governor’s senior communications and policy analyst, yesterday agreed to submit Shelton’s request to the governor. But the call for more employees comes at a time when many state departments are cutting back, he said.

“The governor shares the same goal” as the Wiley Center, which is to increase participation in the food stamp program, Sneesby said.

In fact, an outreach program last year increased participation in the program by nearly 10 percent, Sneesby said. However, the state’s participation rate, now around 55 percent, is still below the 61 percent average for the Northeast.

Shelton said the Wiley Center three years ago asked the governor to do more to help food stamp users.

But the state Department of Human Services rejected the center’s request for longer office hours and fewer requirements for food stamp users.

Antipoverty advocates had hoped the state would increase office hours several nights a week and stay open longer on Saturday, so applicants would not have to miss work to apply. They also proposed changing the recertification process from every six months to once a year, which advocates argued would have saved time and reduced caseloads.

Shelton, who handed out fliers and lobbied lawmakers at the State House, said the governor must do more. “He’s dragging his feet on the food stamp program,” he said.

Employees in Woonsocket, Pawtucket, Providence and Warwick each work an average of 702 cases, but should be working only 400, Shelton said.

Instead of paying food stamp workers overtime, the state could use that money to hire more staff, he said.

“The governor is not facing reality. We have a major hunger problem in Rhode Island” and the state is not serving enough people, he said.

pdavis@projo.com