Catholic Charities expands services in the region

By CLOEY CALLAHAN
Posted 3/17/21

Catholic Charities, serving not only Orange County but Sullivan and Ulster Counties as well, has stepped up to the plate to offer a multifaceted, intersectional approach during the pandemic to ensure …

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Catholic Charities expands services in the region

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Catholic Charities, serving not only Orange County but Sullivan and Ulster Counties as well, has stepped up to the plate to offer a multifaceted, intersectional approach during the pandemic to ensure community members’ needs are met across the board. In the City of Newburgh, they have conducted a number of pop-up food pantries at its 280 Broadway location.

Before, and even more so during the pandemic, Catholic Charities has served the community with connecting them to basic coordination services, like assisting with rental arrears, utility help, legal assistance, addiction treatment and recovery support, and prevention and education. In March 2020, they started new programming to offer food services, which grew from a pantry size to needing office space for all of the food collection and distribution.

“In March, when we all went into lockdown, we still continued with those services, but we also found ourselves supporting families with food,” said Hector Morell, Director of Social and Human Services at Catholic Charities. “Once we started doing that, we ended up getting food from the food bank and other providers and started distributing food in the Newburgh community.”

When someone from the City of Newburgh reached out asking them to apply for coronavirus community development block grant funding, Catholic Charities did so. The City of Newburgh city council voted on February 22 to dedicate COVID-19 community development block grant funding towards food security for not only Catholic Charities but Newburgh Urban Farm and Food and the Newburgh Armory Unity Center as well.

The last pop-up pantry in Newburgh was at the end of January, where it feed over 100 families in need – despite a snowy day. Across the three counties and since March 2020, the organization donated 167,000 meals, which is almost double what they did in 2019. They also provided more than 1,750 meals to households required to quarantine due to COVID.

In addition to food assistance, Catholic Charities has supplied community members with baby necessities, hygiene items, coats and more.

Throughout the entire pandemic, the organization has also been able to keep its clinics open across each county, including the Newburgh location.

“We started off with a lot of information sharing,” said Morell. “Catholic Charities did a Facebook Live to provide information to families because local hospitals found families were coming in and they weren’t getting information about COVID.”

With its information sharing practices, not only did they inform community members about COVID-19 protocols, but Catholic Charities included ways for community members to get help with mental health and substance abuse issues, including for the immigrant and undocumented populations. During the food distribution, they also include fliers with information on how to get help if needed.

“People aren’t sure how to manage their stress and anxiety and especially if they’re in recovery, it’s making it more difficult to stay in recovery right now,” said Kristin Jensen, Chief Advancement Officer at Catholic Charities. “We’re working hard to have folks understand that they don’t have to do it alone and services are available, whether for the individual or the family member who isn’t sure how to deal with that situation.”

With likely long term socio-economic effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic Charities plans to continually support community members, in addition to utilizing new tools they learned like virtual meetings and information sharing.

If anyone needs assistance, email Catholic Charities’ helpline at ccosuhelpline@cccsos.org or visit catholiccharitiesny.org.