More than once, they had to quarantine the men in the shelter, which meant they needed food and staff 24 hours a day. Volunteers weren t as numerous, as some had health issues or concerns during the worst of the shutdown days. Weekly church services had to be scaled back to adhere to capacity guidelines. And the food pantry, which was just gearing up with refrigeration and the ability to allow families to âshopâ for what they wanted instead of handing out pre-packaged standard boxes, had to put that aspect of the ministry on hold.
âObviously the need is much, much greater,â said Kyle Karsten, director of development and community relations. âAnd I think we re seeing that continue to kind of rear its head, but when it was March of 2020 through the year, we saw more and more people coming to the food pantry who had never been here before, more men that came to the shelter and then needed to stay for longer because of the pandemic and we had to keep them out of