The basic needs of families and individuals in the community continue even as the COVID-19 pandemic has placed a temporary hold on the lives and livelihoods of so many.

To ensure that at least a few nonprofits and small businesses within the city of Battle Creek are able to continue to meet critical needs for necessities such as food, clothing, baby formula, and personal hygiene items, Battle Creek Unlimited established an emergency microgrant fund last week. The microgrant program, announced on Thursday, is funded through a $250,000 donation from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Joe Sobieralski, President and CEO of BCU, says priority will be given to businesses owned by women, minorities, and people of color as well as nonprofits whose mission serves children, women, minorities, and people of color.

“There was a realization that organizations out there like nonprofits and ultra-small businesses were not in a position to take advantage of SBA (Small Business Administration) programs. We knew there was a missing piece there,” Sobieralski says. “There are businesses that might not have 2018 or 2019 tax returns. 

“That was a conversation we had with WKKF, that there are great nonprofits out there who serve the most vulnerable in our community and that’s when we included these microgrants.”

To qualify applicants must meet criteria, including having a staff of 15 or fewer employees and annual revenue of $1 million or less. The maximum amounts available are $10,000, $7,500, or $5,000 and there are specific established guidelines.

Funds may be used to maintain payroll and workforce expenses, including accounts payable, rent, utilities, and other bills that could have been paid otherwise if the Executive Order had not been issued, Sobieralski says.

As of Friday, April 16, “We had more than 20 applicants, the majority of them being nonprofits,” he says.

The Charitable Union, located at 85 Calhoun Street, was among the first applicants for the microgrants. Teresa Allen, Executive Director of Charitable Union, says she applied for $10,000 which will be used to pay costs, such as payroll and utilities, associated with the continued operation of the building.

“The expense of having a building doesn’t stop,” she says.

Charitable Union, which has an annual operating budget of more than $500,000, has continued limited operations with a staff of 10 that adheres to strict social distancing protocol. 

Allen says she applied for $50,000 in funding from the $349 billion federal Payroll Protection Program and was able to secure those monies before the PPP ran out of money late last week, less than two weeks after it was made available.

The Payroll Protection Program funds will be used to cover staffing costs at Charitable Union for an eight-week period that ends on June 30. The microgrant, Allen says, will cover the remainder of payroll costs not covered by the PPP.

Prior to the shutdown of non-essential businesses, the organization covered gaps created by decreases in funding or a lack of available grants with money generated by its Gift Shop which sells some of the items donated, in addition to items sewn by volunteers such as quilts. Allen says the shop is a sustainable revenue stream that is temporarily unavailable as are thousands of businesses deemed non-essential.

“This is really about keeping regular incomes going into our homes at very uncertain times. If you’re getting a regular paycheck, you can survive,” Allen says of the PPP and microgrant programs.

Under current restrictions, seven employees, two full-time, including Allen and five part-time, work on-site and are each located in different parts of the building to maintain social distancing guidelines.

One employee answers telephone calls, another fills orders from community members, and the remainder sew masks that are being donated to organizations such as Bronson Health, Care Well Services, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Allen says more than 1,000 masks have been made and donated by volunteers and staff working from their homes and at the 85 Calhoun Street location.

Even though regular operations have been scaled back, Allen says residents can still call to get clothing, household items, and other necessities still available.

“Anyone can call us and let us know what they need over the phone,” she says. “They let us know what their needs are and we break it down for the household.

“We’ve had Burmese families who contacted us on Facebook to say that a child needs this size of clothing and shoes and we find the items for them.”

The organization also works with other community nonprofits such as Safe Place and Inasmuch House operated by the Haven of Rest Ministry to provide bedding and household items to ensure that people in transitional housing have what they need.

In addition to filling orders via phone, staff also are meeting the needs of those who come to the building as in a case last week when six men from the SHARE Center showed up on a snowy day in need of winter gear. Allen says they also were recently able to help two new mothers who came straight from the hospital in need of baby layettes and infant formula.

Prior to the Stay At Home orders, Charitable Union was taking in between 900 and 1,200 boxes and bags of donated items each week, “more than we can put out on our floor,” Allen says.

She says they have run out of tents and sleeping bags, but were able to purchase more through a donation from a funding partner. She says they’re also working with community partners to get more baby formula which also has been a much-sought-after item. There are other items that they are in no danger of running out of. 

Donations of men’s clothing have always been somewhat of a struggle and that has become more pronounced because Charitable Union is serving a lot more men right now. Allen says unlike women, men tend to wear their clothes out before donating them which means there are less donations and what comes in may not be as usable.

Although still able to capture some of the information that is used in grant applications to funders when filling requests for items from people who call or show up in person, Allen says her organization is also doing a lot of work that can’t be tracked because the needs are so immediate.

As an example, she cites a partnership with the Battle Creek YMCA which is doing regularly scheduled diaper drives.

“We are providing Period Packs and we don’t know who’s receiving them. People need these products and we need to get them out there,” Allen says. “We are making sure our funders know that we are doing these things because it’s the right thing to do for our community.”

Longterm, she says she worries about the impact on families who “really depend on us for books and clothing for different seasons.” She says there will be a point when they are going to run out of certain types of clothing and sizes.

The longer that organizations including Charitable Union, Goodwill and the Salvation Army are unable to accept donations, the more challenging it will be when they are able to again. Allen says she expects to be deluged with donations and anticipates the need to bring in storage units to hold items that will have to remain in their own quarantine for at least 72 hours and cleaned to lessen the risk of the virus being spread.

She says she also doesn’t anticipate having a lot of volunteers coming back because of fears about the ongoing virus threat.

“This is nothing that I ever anticipated,” Allen says. “Saying that we’re not going to accept donations and limit staff in our building is a different model than I ever had anticipated delivering.”

The COVID-19 Microgrant Guidelines and Application are available at battlecreekcovid-19.com. Applications are due by the close of business on Wednesday, April 22, 2020.