By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Due to COVID-19, one local nonprofit is changing how they care for the homeless.

“Our focus is on the people who stay in our shelter, the men and women that stay in our shelter. Providing them with meals three times a day, and we are also trying to reach out to our community by providing sack lunches and food boxes for people in need,” said Home Sweet Home Ministries Chief Executive Officer Marry Ann Pullin. “We had to scale back and cut back everything else we do.”

Speaking with WJBC’s Marc Strauss, Pullin said Home Sweet Home Ministries is facing new challenges, such as suspending volunteers from entering the building. Pullin said Home Sweet Home is still practicing social distancing.

“We changed our rules somewhat, and everybody needs to do this during this particular time. Normally we would allow people to be in areas we call the ‘lounges’ where they could watch TV and socialize and that type of thing. We are telling people to go to their bedroom space, some of them have bedrooms of their own, some of them share with other people, to provide that social distance that we need to provide.

Home Sweet Home is still distributing 40 to 50 sack lunches every day, and 30 to 50 emergency food boxes on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from 3 to 5 p.m. Pullin said Home Sweet Home is still accepting donations of any kind.

Listen: Home Sweet Home Ministries Chief Executive Officer Marry Ann Pullin speaks with WJBC’s Marc Strauss. 

“If anybody has any (disinfectant wipes) that they could share with us, we would greatly appreciate that. We have a need for all the things that everybody else has, thermometers, any kind of sanitizing equipment we would love that.”

Pullin said donations can be made at HSHSministries.org.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].