When the recession hit, people in Deschutes County flocked to government food assistance faster than in any other county in Oregon, said Belit Burke, manager of the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. She expects that’s because of the particularly hard toll the housing market crash took here.

“You had people who had been making six-figure incomes that suddenly were needing help, and they were breaking down in the offices and crying,” she said.

Circumstances have improved in many respects, but the number of people who rely on SNAP has not changed significantly. About 18 percent of people in Deschutes County relied on the program in April to help pay for food, and they’re staying on the program longer than in pre-recession years.

“This is kind of new territory for us,” Burke said. “We used to see that people would drop off at recertification or midpoint in the six months. Now we’re seeing them stay on.”

Use of the program in Crook and Jefferson counties is even higher: 24 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

That’s why when people from community organizations and the state’s Department of Human Services, which administers the federally funded program, spread the word about SNAP to those who might be eligible, they stress how common it is. One in 5 Oregonians relies on SNAP, and food purchases through the program have exceeded $1 billion in the state in at least each of the past five years, according to data provided to The Bulletin from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

People don’t realize how many of their neighbors use the program simply because no one talks about it, said Annie Kirschner, program director for the nonprofit advocacy group Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. About two weeks ago, Kirschner and her colleagues visited Warm Springs for a focus group with locals who rely on the program.

“People in that room said, ‘I have never talked about these things, even with my family,’” she said. “Talking about hunger in general, it tends to be a very private struggle. It’s not out in public.”

Kirschner also tries to dispel the myth that only people living in big cities struggle with poverty. In Oregon, she said rural counties such as Crook and Lake have the highest rates of food insecurity, a problem fueled in part by the loss of manufacturing jobs, like the recent mill closure in Prineville, according to state data. In areas like that, it’s not only that jobs are tougher to come by, it’s often the sheer distance to the nearest grocery store.

In Warm Springs, for example, Kirschner found that some people would buy groceries only once every two weeks, and when they did, they’d drive more than 80 miles to the WinCo in Gresham to buy in bulk.

“That’s the way that they’re able to stretch their limited dollars as far as they can is to drive that far,” she said. “They might have a convenience store to get food from, but it’s not giving them access to fruits and vegetables, the kind of things they want to eat.”

A big contributor to how long people are staying on SNAP is the types of jobs they’re getting: part time, temporary or seasonal — and often they don’t allow people the flexibility to add on another one, Burke said.

“It’s not that people aren’t wanting to go to work, it’s that they’re having a hard time finding full-time employment that will help them leave the program.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0304,

tbannow@bendbulletin.com