St. Vincent de Paul providing relief during COVID-19 pandemic

GREAT FALLS — Earlier this week, we told you about United Way of Cascade County’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. The new effort provides emergency funding to agencies who help people facing uncertainty due to the pandemic.

One of those organizations to receive relief is St. Vincent de Paul, who said that with money from the fund, they’ve been able to buy essentials for their food bank and reopen their homeless shelter’s shower and laundry services.

Executive director Deborah Kottel said they’ve seen needs double for residents in recent months: “Where we normally get 30 families a day we were up to 60 or 70,” she said “It was overwhelming.”

Emergency funds from places like the United Way have kept shelves stocked and families full. “Altogether somewhere between 50,000 to 60,000 pounds of food a month comes out of this food bank for this community,” she said.

Kottel believes the pandemic has highlighted the efforts by agencies around Cascade County to keep food doubts down and hope alive. “It reminds us how much we’re connected to each other,” she said. “And how the vulnerability of one part of our community sort of makes us all vulnerable.”

Kottel’s seen new faces staring into an uncertain future for the first time, hungry for help. “Because of job loss they were in here and so we provided a really specific need with that,” she said.

It’s not just food security; officials say the smallest things like a hot shower and clean clothes can make a big difference in the life of someone seeking stability. “How do you set your alarm, be clean, and get to a job when you’re sleeping on the river bank?” said Carley Tuss, director of Homeless Services. “And yet I’ve seen people do that.”

The organization’s homeless center has been open at 500 Central Avenue since February 2019. Tuss says they’ve helped numerous people looking for their next step. “(They say) I want to work. I want to better myself. I want to be stable,” she said. “And in order to do that, can I get an alarm clock please, so I can wake up on time to get to work?”

From rental and job help to laundry, St. Vincent de Paul officials are always finding ways to engage the community even during a pandemic. “In the last month, we have finished and submitted a census for 70 homeless people through meal distribution,” said Tuss.

Tuss says many were willing to help with the questionnaire so organizations like St. Vincent de Paul can continue to make a difference.

The non-profit hands out free meals at First United Methodist Church weekdays from 10:45-noon.

Their homeless center hours are open by appointment only; call 406-952-0699. Click here to visit the website.