LUMBERTON — Despite a manpower shortage, Robeson County Social Services employees told their board of directors Tuesday that they continue to process food stamp applications in a timely manner.

“We’re trying to keep up.,” Allyson Martin, program manager for the Food and Nutrition Services Program, said. “Our folks are doing the best that they can.”

Applications for food stamps have risen significantly since July 1 when the income requirements for food stamps expanded from household incomes at 130 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent. The change means that some families of four with a total income of up to $44,100 may now be able to receive food stamps. Some families of two can now make up to $29,136 and receive benefits.

Martin told the board that as of Monday her department had received 1,796 food stamp applications since the beginning of August. She said that is an increase of 47 percent over the same period last year.

Martin recently said that each of the 52 employees responsible for processing food stamp applications is handling about 140 a month — about 60 more than what she said would be a “good amount” for a single employee.

County Commissioner Raymond Cummings, the chairman of the Social Services board, said that nine recently hired temporary employees to help administer the Crisis Intervention and Low Income Energy Assistance programs should provide some relief. Processing applications for the Crisis Intervention and Low Energy Assistance programs is an additional responsibility of the department’s Food and Nutrition Services unit.

“This will help all around,” Cummings said.

The nine employees were hired with $175,000 in state and federal funding the department recently received. The employees will work from now through May, according to Martin.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Becky Morrow, the county’s director of Social Services, told the board that the new Social Services building being constructed on N.C. 711 just west of the Health Department, is 52 percent complete.

“It’s wonderful. I’ve toured the building and it’s great,” Morrow said. “It’s going to be real nice.”

Morrow said that construction of the $19 million facility, expected to be finished in March, is running right on schedule. She told board members that she wants them to tour the building when they meet for their next regular meeting at the end of this month.

The need for a new Social Services building has existed for years, officials say. Construction began in late January.

The new two-story building provides space for all of the department’s more than 300 employees, some of whom now work out of converted closets at the current building.