Chittenden County's only low barrier homeless shelter is looking for help feeding its guests this holiday season. In October, the Community Health Center of Burlington said it could no longer run the shelter -- so ANEW Place stepped in. But now they're having trouble providing meals to their guests.

Coordinators at the Burlington Low Barrier Shelter say they have a handful of monthly and weekly meal providers, but they need more. They say staff and volunteers have been providing meals for 40 guests a night at their own expense which they anticipate will take a toll on the shelter’s budget.

Intake Coordinator Katie Ballard says cooking often keeps them from catering to other needs in the shelter.

“Some nights, the staff just doesn’t have the capacity because we’re trying to turn beds over,” explained Ballard. “We’re trying to take care of all of the other needs. It would just be so helpful to be able to not have to focus on the limited budget that we have and the limited resources that we have.

Shelter Coordinator Heather Bush says they’re seeking meal providers as well as asking people for donations to ensure their guests have hot meals every day. They’re accepting canned goods, frozen meals, ingredients, and gift cards to local grocery stores.

“We really need things that we can freeze and make when we don’t have a meal provider. We don’t really have anything to offer our guests in the morning except for coffee so it would be really good to be able to send them out with food in the morning,” said Bush. “The benefit of having a meal and a place to be is just stability and predictability. Because when your life is chaotic and you’re running around trying to get to this service, that service and another service, you’re not able to focus on your other needs. You’re in survival mode.”

Bush says one reason they’re having a hard time attracting meal providers is because the shelter has recently come up under new management. ANEW Place took over the shelter on Nov.1 after Community Health Center of Burlington said it could no longer run it.

“The biggest roadblock is just getting people who have previously supported the shelter to transfer over their services to ANEW and just trying to reestablish all of these systems that were set up through another agency,” she explained.

Some people have already stepped up to help including Adam Roof, I – Burlington City Council.

“One effective way to do that is through soup so we’re doing a bit of a soup drive,” he told WCAX News. “You can, of course, donate other sources of meals as well but soup is easy to make. It’s also easy to store.”

Bush and Ballard say the ultimate goal is to make sure people’s needs are met.

“When you don’t have an address, you don’t know where you’re going to be at night, and you don’t know if you’re going to get a warm meal, that is a lot of stress to put on individuals who are trying to navigate some pretty complex issues,” said Ballard. “It’s really important to be able to give people their basis needs in the best of our ability in the least shameful way so that they can hopefully start up the day tomorrow with a full belly and maybe just feel a little bit better about themselves.”

Bush and Ballard say the shelter can accommodate 40 people a night. Due to limited space, they’re forced to turn away with at least six people a night. They say they will also accept winter gear such as hand warmers and blankets to give to those who aren’t able to stay in the shelter overnight.

To sign up to provide a meal, head to BTVShelter.org.