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The amount of work is increasing but the staff remains the same. That was one of the points raised by Lunenburg County Social Services Director Melinda Elliott on Thursday, March 13. She gave Lunenburg supervisors a “state of the department” report, outlining the multiple ways requests for her office’s help have grown. 

Take, for example, the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. Last year, Social Services in Lunenburg provided help to more than 3,100 residents. That equates to roughly 26% of the county’s current population, which is pretty high. By comparison, the average county population receiving benefits is 9% across Virginia. The amount needing Medicaid benefits have also increased. 

“So the number is pretty astronomical, but with that expansion, at least we know that there’s more people out there in need of services,” Elliott said. 

She’s referring to the amount of Lunenburg residents needing help from Medicaid, which included 5,900 people last year. That equates to 49% of the current county population. And in both that and with SNAP, the number is growing year over year. 

One benefit she reported was that the SNAP money was being spent in Lunenburg, so that helps out the local economy, through grocery shopping at Food Lion or buying at a nearby store. There are currently 21 stores, grocery and otherwise, that accept EBT cards. 

Looking at the data over time 

Before coming to Thursday’s meeting, Elliott said she pulled the data from the last five years, to see if SNAP and Medicaid requests were growing, shrinking or remaining the same. The answer is they’re growing. From 2020 to the end of 2024, SNAP recipients in Lunenburg County increased by 500. In that same five-year span, Medicaid recipients grew by more than 850 cases.
“So we continue to see an increase (in cases) with the same amount of staff,” Elliott said. 

And the problem, Elliott said, is that the state continues to add things to their plate. 

“The state is increasing the demand of what we and our staff have to do,” Elliott said. “Not only are they seeing an increase in caseloads, but they’re also seeing an increase in (changing) policies and what the state (requires) us to do.”

In addition to SNAP and Medicaid, calls for Child Protective Services also increased last year. In 2021, there were only 69 cases in Lunenburg. In 2022, that bumped up to 77. Now there are 142 Child Protective Services cases currently in the county. 

“From 69 in 2021 to 142, that’s a huge increase of child protective service calls,” Elliott said. 

She added that this presentation was to outline what her staff has to deal with on a regular basis, and so county officials know they’re not just sitting around. There’s plenty of work to be done. 

Waiting on the Lunenburg County budget 

While county departments like Social Services and the sheriff’s office have made their presentations, the actual budget discussions with a proposal for supervisors to consider won’t be outlined until April. The reason, County Administrator Tracy Gee told supervisors Thursday, is because Lunenburg is still waiting on the General Assembly. 

“We are still waiting, of course, on the state to send down what we know for sure will be moving forward,” Gee said, pointing out the Assembly won’t reconvene until April. At that point, they’ll decide which of the governor’s vetoes they will challenge. And until all that is over, counties like Lunenburg won’t know for sure what their allocation from the state for things like schools will look like. 

The current plan is to set a budget work session for April 10, the same day as the Board of Supervisors meeting. That will take place at 3 p.m., followed by a supervisors meeting at 6 p.m.