PRESQUE ISLE – United Way of Aroostook received word this week that Aroostook County is getting some $50,000 in funding to supplement local emergency food and shelter programs.

Claudia Stevens, executive director of the local United Way, said Wednesday that the $50,640 appropriation, awarded by the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program, is a $6,120 increase from last year.

That is a significant increase compared with what the region saw last year, when it received a $1,305 increase from 2004.

Stevens said that the larger increase is both good and bad news.

“It is a fairly decent increase because for years it declined,” Stevens said. “But the reason it moved is because there is a formula they use based on population, employment rate, median income, etc. I think it’s a reflection that the economy isn’t as strong as it was and that’s why it’s continued to move and go higher.”

For years, Stevens said, the region’s funding went down because the area’s unemployment rate was dropping.

“If you look at it from why are those numbers moving, that would be a negative, but certainly it’s a positive in responding to the need,” Stevens said.

She said the funding, which the area has received from the program for the past several years, will benefit area homeless shelters, soup kitchens and other charity organizations.

A local board – composed of United Way officials and other County organization leaders and representatives – will determine how the money awarded to Aroostook County is to be distributed among the emergency food and shelter programs run by regional service organizations that apply for the funding. The local board will advertise the availability of the money, review applications, establish priorities, select the nonprofit and government agencies to receive the funding, and monitor program compliance.

For the local board, Stevens said, the increase in funding was good news.

“I think that it’s good news in terms of answering the call for food and shelter, because that’s what it’s targeted for,” she said.

Last year, $44,250 in funding was distributed in northern Maine for programs run by Homeless Services of Aroostook, Battered Women’s Project, Aroostook Area Agency on Aging, Bread of Life Soup Kitchen, M&M Ministries, The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities of Maine, Helping Hands, Caribou Ecumenical Food Pantry, Nature’s Bounty Food Pantry, the American Red Cross-Aroostook Chapter, and the Eastern Maine AIDS Network-Aroostook County Chapter. The agencies were responsible for providing meals and nights of lodging, as well as fuel, rent and mortgage payments to prevent families throughout the region from becoming homeless.

The national board, which has disbursed almost $3 billion in federal funds since its creation in 1983, is chaired by a Federal Emergency Management Agency official and includes representation from: The Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Council of Jewish Federations, National Council of Churches of Christ, United Way of America and Catholic Charities USA.

Under the national board’s terms, local governmental or private voluntary organizations chosen to receive the money must be nonprofit, have an accounting system, practice nondiscrimination, have demonstrated the capability to deliver emergency food and shelter programs, and, if they are a private voluntary organization, they must have a voluntary board.

Qualifying organizations interested in applying for the funding must submit proposals by Friday, Jan. 12. The local board will review the proposals on Jan. 18.

For information about the program or to learn about eligibility requirements and the application process, contact Claudia Stevens at 764-5197.