DENVER -- A slow computer system to input applications could be the reason why applications for food stamps are piling up and other charitable organizations are loosing money.

Foundations say they are upset that the $166.4 million computer system has not been fixed, reports the Denver Post.

"We're going to try to get to the source instead of treating the symptoms," David Miller, president of The Denver Foundation, told the Post. "The way to prevent hunger is not just to give people a meal for a day … but give them job training and education and things like that to reduce, if not eliminate, poverty."

The Denver Foundation has donated $983,000 to food this year, an increase from $190,000 last year. Grants that usually go to arts, schools, health care and the environment are now going to feed those that qualify.

Miller and his board met with Governor Bill Ritter to talk about how foundations could help the state move more quickly to improve the Colorado Benefits Management System.

In the letter, The Denver Foundation said Colorado's food-stamp problems have led to "human suffering" that is "intolerable and unacceptable."

A meeting has not been scheduled, but the governor has ordered the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to provide an update on the CBMS computer system, Evan Dreyer, Ritter's spokesman, told the Post.

"Like every state, we're experiencing record increases in applications for assistance," Dreyer told the Post. "Can we do better? Yes. Is there a sense of urgency to remedy any shortcomings in the system? Absolutely."

CBMS processes applications for Medicaid, temporary assistance for needy families and food stamps.

The system has thrown out some applicants and overpaid others. State officials fixed this problem but had to pay back the federal government more than $9 million in December for the mistakes.

Counties have also complained CSMS is inefficient. Workers can spend up to 45 minutes entering data for just one application.

The recession has increased the amount of applications in the metro area and Colorado Springs, which are back logged, leaving advocacy groups warning that people could go hungry. Between 20 percent and 40 percent of applicants waited longer than 30 days to get a food-stamp card this spring, the Post reported.

Other charitable groups want the problem fixed because they are loosing money. Colfax Community Network, director Brooke Davidson told the Post she worries about paying rent and her staff because she lost funding from foundations for offering expenses and counseling.

Deloitte Consulting has a $48.6 million contract to make a Web-based application system in nine months, officials tell the Post. People will be able to apply anywhere for help, libraries, home or senior centers.

"It's been really frustrating because people have not really cared," said Gretchen McComb, president of the Women's Foundation of Colorado, said to the Post. "I do sense some urgency now, but I don't know if that necessarily means a competency to fix it." At Metro CareRing, director Jonathan Holmer has seen 100 to 200 more people a month come in for boxes of food this year.

Holmer recently got $7,000 from the Denver Foundation to buy food. Families can only come once a month to his pantry.

"I wish we didn't have to exist," Holmer said. "If everything … was working, no one would need us."