SARATOGA LIVINGThe City. The Culture. The Life.

While for many of us the world seems to be on pause, as we practice social distancing and work from home, the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic is that not everyone has the luxury to sit around in their pajamas while on a conference call. For those classified as “essential personnel,” such as grocery store cashiers and the heroic doctors we reported on earlier this week, being away from work isn’t an option. And for others, mass layoffs as a result of businesses closing their doors mean they no longer have a job—or an income.

Just last week, nearly 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment. With companies across the nation laying off employees, more people than ever are left without a steady source of income. As a result, nonprofits that offer food and other services to those in need are receiving an overwhelming and unprecedented number of requests for support. In the past two weeks alone, Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council (EOC), a local nonprofit dedicated to feeding at-risk populations, has served 14,000 people, providing 17,000 meals for Capital Region residents in need. “Just talking to the people when you ask what their needs are, you hear how desperate people are right now,” says Saratoga County EOC Executive Director Jo Anne Hume. “In some cases, two people in the household have lost their jobs, and it’s quite devastating to talk to those people over and over again who are experiencing such fear.”

Under normal circumstances (i.e. when Saratoga County isn’t in the midst of a global pandemic), the EOC operates a self-service food pantry. Recently, though, it’s switched gears to offer a food delivery service three days a week to reduce social contact. (Hume notes that deliveries are being made closer to five days a week to keep up with rising demand; EOC staffers have literally been working around the clock to keep Saratoga County fed.) “It’s all hands on deck,” Hume says. “We don’t see a day off in sight anytime soon.”

For obvious reasons, the EOC had to cancel its May 13 May Day Fundraiser, which normally provides the organization with enough funding to sustain operations for the whole year. Without those funds, it’s unclear how the EOC will continue to operate in the coming months. Hume’s hope is that people who are “nonessential workers,” but who have the means to help out, will volunteer to deliver meals, answer phones and make calls to schedule deliveries. Additionally, monetary donations are much needed and can be made on the EOC’s website.

Another local charity that’s had an increased strain put on its shoulders as a result of the COVID-19 crisis is the Veterans and Community Housing Coalition (VCHC). The nonprofit, which serves seven counties in Upstate New York from its Ballston Spa headquarters, provides housing and support services to veterans and their families. “The request for assistance is rising,” says VCHC Executive Director Cheryl Hage-Perez. “We get more and more calls every day. Veterans are especially vulnerable right now; many don’t have transportation to even get food for themselves.”

While VCHC staff continue to work remotely, delivering food to those in need, like the EOC, their supply is dwindling due to the sudden increase in demand. In order to keep Upstate New York’s vulnerable population fed, VCHC has created a GoFundMe page and has a Paypal link on its website for donations. “We’re very fortunate to be operating in such a generous community, and any donations are greatly appreciated,” Hage-Perez says.

Saratoga County EOC and VCHC are just two of many Capital Region nonprofit organizations working overtime to ensure that no one is left without food or other essential resources in the midst of the current public health crisis. (See: Shelters of Saratoga.) Despite their hard work, these organizations still need support. A full list of Saratoga County nonprofits in urgent need of help can be found here.

We know it’s difficult to make summer plans so far in advance—especially, with what’s been going on lately—but hey, if those plans were to include having amazing amphitheater seats to see Dave Matthews Bands at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, would that change your mind?

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The COVID-19 pandemic has put on a strain on Capital Region businesses, restaurants and bars—but it’s also, likely, put one on our psyches. And New York State will be mobilizing more than 6,000 mental health professionals to provide free consult to anyone in the state who’s feeling the psychological effects of the outbreak.

“I don’t know that anyone else has done this,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of the effort, during his press briefing on Wednesday, March 25. “The emotion stress and mental health challenges that [the COVID-10 pandemic] brings on people—no one is really talking about this; we’re all concerned about the immediate critical need, the life and death of the situation. But don’t underestimate the emotional trauma that people are feeling, and emotional health issues.”

An appeal was made to the mental health care community to have psychologists voluntarily sign up to provide free, online treatment services to New Yorkers—and 6,175 mental health care professionals signed on.

If you or someone you know might be in need of mental health care services, you can call New York’s hotline—1.844.863.9314—and schedule an appointment with a mental health care professional for free.

When New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo recently made an appeal to regional manufacturing businesses to flip the script and start producing medical equipment en masse for area hospitals in need, these local businesses heeded the call.

Having been deemed an “essential” manufacturer, Comfortex, which normally manufactures products such as window blinds and shades, has switched gears and is now producing medical gowns and masks as well, per Albany Business Review. (Comfortex is based in Watervliet.) In a message to the public, Executive Vice President John Fitzgerald noted that, during conversations with the government and medical facilities, Comfortex saw the chance to help fulfill “the needs of people and businesses during this crisis.”

Also helping out is Colonie-based Precision Valve & Automation, which has spent nearly three decades producing robots used to manufacture car dashboard screens, artificial hips and military weapons, is prepared to make up to 100 emergency ventilators per day. Said the company’s President Tony Hynes of the initiative: “When we heard the governor ask businesses to be creative and help, we took that as our marching orders. We can build anything and make it work.”

And it’s not only happening in the Capital Region: A Syracuse-area couple is 3-D printing face-shields for medical workers working with COVID-19-infected patients.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the businesses, restaurants and bars in Saratoga Springs—and that’s meant some people have lost their jobs—the city’s homeless populations are hurting even more than usual. In fact, Shelters of Saratoga (SOS) is itself in crisis mode, with a serious need for monetary donations to help protect that most vulnerable of area populations, who have become increasingly vulnerable to the rapid spread of the virus.

That’s why on Friday, March 20, SOS launched a COVID-19 Response Fund, in hopes of raising enough money to keep its facilities up and running, with a goal of $150,000 by April 15 just to sustain business for the next couple of months. With this year’s annual fundraising gala having been cancelled due to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shutting down large events temporarily, SOS is losing a “considerable amount of operating revenue,” according to Rosemary Royce, its director of development and marketing. “We are operating now 24/7 at both shelters,” she says. “We’ve had to bring on additional staff as we’ve lost some people, so those are some of the costs that we’re faced with, and the increased need of food security, the availability of food is scarce as you can well imagine.”

Another real-time issue is the uncertainty of some restaurants’ support now compared to the past, as a result of recent closures. It’s left SOS’ staff in a tough situation to fulfill their priority of keeping Saratoga’s homeless populations “safe, sheltered and fed,” according to Royce. On top of all this, the staff at SOS has also had to implement social distancing measures and encourage good hygiene and hand-washing techniques from its shelter residents. Staff members are also encouraging residents to remain inside to prevent potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus. “It’s tough to do, because people are used to having their freedom and liberties just like the rest of us,” says Royce. “You have all of these people in shelter who no longer have those liberties, and they’re in a [communal] living situation with other people. We intend on maintaining shelter for these people. They don’t have anywhere else to go.”

As of this afternoon, the fundraiser has raised more than $45,000 towards its goal. To help out the facility, individuals and local businesses are donating large trays of lasagna, pizza deliveries and other meals that are nutritionally adequate for its residents. Last week, the staff had to make an emergency move from their temporary Code Blue Shelter location on Adelphi Street to the Saratoga Senior Center on Williams Street in order to provide adequate distancing between people. They can now house up to 54 people there and up to 25 people in their year-round shelters on Walworth Street.

“Our staff is essentially working around the clock right now,” says Royce. “Honestly, the monetary donations are No.1, because it allows us to purchase hand sanitizer and all the supplies that we need to keep people healthy and to keep them sheltered. It gives us a lot of flexibility to move that money where we need it, whether that be staffing or equipment supplies, food, you know, keeping our lights on. We’re not getting the same amount of money coming in from our sources that we normally would for fundraising.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a press conference on Tuesday, March 24, updating the public on the state’s efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19—and the message was far from uplifting. “The increase in the number of cases continues, unabated, and, in fact, the rate of increase has gone up,” said Cuomo. The rate of new cases is actually doubling nearly every three days. “We are not slowing it, and it is accelerating on its own,” said Cuomo.

Cuomo noted that while New York State has done everything in its power to “flatten the curve” —closing businesses, reducing the number of people on the streets and increasing the ability for doctors to test for COVID-19, but the number of new cases continue to climb. (New York is actually testing more people than any other state in the US.) Cuomo said that, while talking to an expert virus forecaster about the outbreak, that person likened the outbreak to a “bullet train” crossing the country.

The state’s projected “apex” (or height of new cases in New York State) could be as many as 14 to 21 days away, said Cuomo, and the state’s projected number of hospital beds needed to be filled—110,000—might need to be upped by as many as 30,000 in the ensuing weeks. To that end, Cuomo reiterated the desperate need for hospitals to acquire protective equipment for doctors—most importantly, ventilators, which are needed for the most critically ill patients and could mean the difference between “life and death.” (The governor said there’s been a call to potentially test using a single ventilator for two separate patients.) New York State has been able to acquire 7,000 ventilators but needs to get that number up to 30,000.