T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Jack Regis Jr., left, budget officer with the Belmont County Department of Jobs and Family Services, and DJFS Director Vince Gianangeli review applications Tuesday for families seeking to participate in the School Clothes for Kids program this September. They have more funding and expanded eligibility this year.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Families with children in need of new clothes this school year will have some assistance and a chance to shop at the Ohio Valley Mall from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program has made additional funding available for the yearly School Clothes for Kids initiative and on Tuesday, the Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services began taking applications at the former Aeropostale store across from American Eagle.

“This is the first day of the application process for School Clothes for Kids,” DJFS Director Vince Gianangeli said. “We started at 9 a.m. and in the first two hours from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. we took over 100 applications.”

By 1:30 p.m., they had taken close to 250 applications.

“We expect about 2,000 this year,” he said.

In prior years, about 1,800 children were provided clothes. This year, TANF has made as much as $800,000 available compared to last year’s $700,000.

Since 2014, more than 6,800 children have been served, and after this year almost $4 million of federal TANF money has been invested in the Ohio Valley Mall, generating almost $270,000 of sales tax revenue.

This year, the county DJFS has expanded eligibility by increasing the percent threshold for federal poverty from 150 in prior years to 175 this year, allowing for more applicants. Gianangeli said word has gotten out.

“All of the people are very appreciative. A few people have hugged me and thanked me and our staff for the program again this year and making it available to our residents,” he said. “It has made more people eligible. We actually had one lady come in. She had three children and the income guidelines for three children, the monthly income would be $3,111 and she made $3,022, so she just made the income guidelines. Had it still been at 150 percent poverty, she would not have been eligible for the program. We know there’s a lot more people this year that are going to be eligible because we are increasing that standard.”

The program is offered to families with children in kindergarten through 12th grade.

“We are getting a nice mix and from all of the school districts, too. We’ve had all of the seven public school districts represented and so are some of the private schools,” he said.

Gianangeli said in addition to clothes, this year they are permitting families to purchase one backpack per child to carry books and school supplies.

Gianangeli added that he is scheduling meetings with the mall managers regarding participating stores. He said at least one new store, the Oil and Gas Safety Supply, has expressed interest in providing school-appropriate items such as backpacks.

“There are some new stores that are joining … and will take part in the program because they are located either within or outside the mall and have clothing and/or backpacks,” he said.

He said his office has also expanded applications times and included a weekend day for greater convenience.

“We’re going to be here six days,” he said. “They like coming here. This is a nice, big store. We don’t have any lines. When we came here this morning, there was probably about 30 people waiting in line. It’s been steady. We have a lot of case managers and supervisors. Even our human resources staff here assisting in the application process.

“After these six days, we’ll get back to the office with all these applications and we’ll determine eligibility for the program,” he said. “Whether or not people are eligible and they meet these income guidelines.”

The entirety of the staff will participate in the evaluation process.

He added that the staff examines pay stubs provided by applicants, listing their last 30 days of income.

“That is what drives this income standard: the number of children in the household and how much they can make gross per month,” he said.

Registration will be between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. beginning Tuesday and Wednesday, with the same times Friday and this coming Monday. Applications will also be open between noon and 8 p.m. Thursday and next Tuesday. Applications will be available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday.