Your Recovery Dollars at Work
Darnell Mascarenas sees the recession's effects in Colorado on a daily basis. She has been a food stamp processing supervisor for Denver Human Services for over 16 years, and explains that this has been the most demanding year in memory. Food stamp applications have jumped from twenty-two thousand this time last year to thirty thousand this year, a 36% increase.
While the increase in demand threatens to slow the processing of food stamps, Denver county staff is working diligently to avoid backlog, and Ms. Mascarenas reports that the Recovery Act dollars are helping these efforts immensely. Rather than take the time to train new workers, DHS is using the funds to provide overtime for existing staff. This allows them to process both initial applications and re-determinations in a timely manner, avoiding customer stress.
She anticipates that the Recovery Act will continue to help those in need by getting them the food stamps they need when they need them.
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