HALO Ministries in need of donations after concerning number of kids

HALO Ministries is in need of the community’s help after officials say the shelter has seen what they call “high numbers” of children, some as young as just two weeks old.

“I went into the women’s shelter and I heard one of the little ones say that “mommy, I’m thirsty” and I said “there’s no problem I’ll run over to the refrigerator and grab some juice” and we didn’t have any,” recalls Celeste Savage, executive director of HALO Ministries.

Savage says last Tuesday’s realization prompted Halo Ministries to call on the community for help via Facebook.

According to Savage, the number of children they’ve seen in the past three weeks has averaged anywhere between 17 and 25 per night.

The women and children’s shelter has 40 beds.

“Based on what we have coming through and the number of beds, when you consider that we’re having more children than we are adults coming in taking the beds, that causes us to have a little bit of concern,” says Savage.

She tells 47ABC the amount of donated milk and juice they’ve gotten from that post is generous, but the need for help never ends.

Savage says they easily go through four gallons of milk everyday between the women and men’s shelters, plus five boxes of cereal and plenty of juice.

An estimated 20 children were expected to stay at the shelter on Monday with an unknown amount throughout the week, so Savage says they need more donations.

“You think about your own home and your gallon of milk or whatever but here, it goes so quickly, when you say 15 or 18 gallons and it’s gone within just three, four, five days time,” she explains.

Savage says they could also items like salt, pepper and butter. Aside from donated materials, they could always volunteers.

For more information on how you can help, click here.