Oregon has been successful at getting people to sign up for these other benefits because of its anti-hunger outreach efforts. Those coming into the Department of Human Services office to ask about food stamps, having heard about them through the state’s outreach efforts, get on other programs, too, Kim Fredlund, the director of self-sufficiency programs for the Oregon Department of Human Services, told me. They fill out one application, and then find out if they qualify for other programs, like TANF, employment-related daycare, and health care.

Rather than trying to discourage people from signing up for government benefits, case workers try to get them into programs that can help them find a job or get the psychological or financial help they need, Brittany Miller, a caseworker, said.

“We're very resourceful in finding ways to make it work,” she said.

Shelby Bivans went into her local DHS office to apply for food stamps in 2014, after she’d lost her job of 14 years as a legal assistant. Her husband had gotten laid off three years before, and they had no savings by the time she was laid off, so they sold everything—TVs, furniture, appliances. Bivans, who is white, didn’t want to get on welfare—she had a perception of it as a program for homeless people. But then her car was repossessed, and she had nothing left.

When she went to apply for food stamps, a case worker convinced her to apply for welfare, too. The benefits allowed her to stay in her home, and the state put her in a 40-hour-a-week program that helped her update her resume and start applying for jobs. She soon moved into a job, subsidized by the state through a program called Jobs PLUS, at a property-management firm, which got her on a regular schedule. With help from state workers who helped her get ready to re-join the workforce, that temporary job eventually turned into a full-time job. Bivans rapidly worked her way up in the organization, and now makes $15.25 an hour, 50 percent more than her starting wage.

The subsidized-employment program in Oregon, Jobs PLUS, has bipartisan support because it is focused on getting people work experience, something Oregon Republicans and Democrats both see as a good thing. “I believe that if you give a person a job, that’s the best social program you can come up with,” Kulongoski told me.

“I think it’s destructive to have people dependent on handouts in perpetuity, but you do have to incentivize them to get off of these rolls,” Ron Maurer, a Republican legislator who worked with Democrats on the bills, told me. That’s a big difference from many other states, which provide a stick, not a carrot, to get people off the rolls.

Oregon even expanded its safety net during the recession, when demand for services increased dramatically. Many states cut people off benefits because they were running out of money, according to Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities’s Welfare Reform and Income Support Division. Not Oregon. The state took money out of a program that got people back into the workforce, because there weren’t many jobs available, and put that money into cash assistance. This helped prevent deep cuts to TANF. During the recession, the state also allowed mothers with young children to stay at home longer, rather than look for work, helping them to save on childcare costs. Oregon has since changed the law so people on food stamps can own a car, added back general assistance, which is benefits for people without children, and doubled the limit on how much money people can make and still receive welfare while they’re transitioning to work.