As the recession continues, the number of Sarasota County citizens needing public help is rising. New numbers today show the number of county households receiving food stamps has doubled from 19,000 in 2007 to around 38,000 now. Because a household can have more than one person, that means that more than 10 percent of the county’s residents now receive state help to buy groceries. There’s also been a 41-percent spike in Medicaid recipients.