Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic created more demand for services from Anchor House Family Assistance Center and Pantry in Seymour.

Restrictions in place required the nonprofit organization to meet the local need differently, including delivering food and operating with fewer volunteers.

Instead of closing its doors or limiting services, however, Anchor House did more with less. It even opened a new emergency overnight shelter in February to give homeless people a warm, safe place to stay.

Now, on behalf of Anchor House, the city of Seymour is applying for a COVID relief grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs to help the agency recover from the economic impact it has suffered because of the pandemic.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

On Monday, after a public hearing on the application, the Seymour City Council voted 7-0 to provide the required $2,800 in matching funds to be eligible for the Community Development Block Grant COVID-19 Phase 3 Response Program.

Grant writer Trena Carter with Administrative Resources association in Columbus said the amount of the grant is $112,630 and if awarded will be used to assist with food pantry response to the pandemic along with other costs incurred from increased hours and cleaning.

“They have and continue to go above and beyond what their normal applicants are,” Carter said of the number of people utilizing the pantry. “We see that need for potentially another year.”

Lindsay Sarver, fund development director for Anchor House, said around 50% of the clients it feeds are children and senior citizens.

“That’s something we should always be aware of as a community,” she said.

Because of the pandemic, Sarver said volunteers haven’t been able to help as much and in some cases had to stop completely.

“We have always enjoyed the great blessing of a lot of volunteers from the community at all times, but with COVID, some of our biggest volunteers that came from a lot of manufacturing areas and other companies had to cut out their volunteering for safety reasons,” she said.

Without volunteers, Sarver said Anchor House had to supplement with almost 50% more paid staff just to operate the pantry.

The pantry has been serving clients through a carry-and-go process, which is labor-intensive requiring staff to separate thousands of pounds of food into boxes and bags for each individual instead of allowing people to come inside the facility and “shop.”

Sarver said the pantry reopened to in-person “shopping” on Monday.

“But we’ve done that before during the pandemic where we opened and had to close again because of the infection rate,” she said.

Separate COVID-19 protocols are in place at the emergency overnight shelter at 326 Dupont Drive because those clients are at a high risk for transmitting infection, she said.

“We have ready-to-eat bags we’re still preparing every day for meals to make sure everybody can eat in separate spaces,” she said.

They’ve also had to purchase plastic barriers to put in between areas where people sleep and have to clean and sanitize the facility frequently.

The nonprofit also has seen fewer donations of food, which has led to having to spend more money to purchase food, Sarver said.

“We used to have people coming in all the time, schools that would do donation drives for us, things of that nature,” she said. “That also has been cut down since COVID, so that has affected how much food we’ve had to purchase out of pocket from places like Gleaners.”

And instead of receiving deliveries of food like in the past, more time has to be spent going to collect it, she added.

But Anchor House continues to be blessed with in-kind support from area churches, she said.

“It’s just the basic needs that have come with COVID and probably the continued unemployment issues or lower incomes as we get back to work is something we expect to see for several months,” she said. “This grant is specifically to address the needs at both locations and the pantry services at both locations and the extra staffing that we will hopefully get back at the end of COVID.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

To donate to Anchor House Family Assistance Center and Pantry:

Online donations can be made at anchorhouseshelter.org. There is a “Click Here to Donate” button toward the bottom of the webpage.

Donations also can be mailed to Anchor House, P.O. Box 765, 250 S. Vine St., Seymour, IN 47274.

For information, call Anchor House at 812-522-9308 or email [email protected].

[sc:pullout-text-end]