TULSA, Okla — Businesses closed their doors more than a month ago, leaving employees without a job or fewer hours.
More than 200,000 Oklahomans filed for unemployment.
Some people are turning to local non-profits and organizations to get through each week.
Executive Director Chris Bernard with Hunger Free Oklahoma said others are only tapping into unemployment, leaving a lot of resources untouched.
He says nearly 70% of the people they’re partners, like local food banks, are seeing right now are new clients, which means they’ve never had to access their resources before.
“If your family is struggling, if you got furloughed, your family should be looking at snap and other benefit programs, not just unemployment because they’re all designed to be a piece of a network of benefits to help a family survive in crises," said Bernard.
Bernard said they’re organization is working with their partners to make adjustments as new COVID-19 guidelines are being enforced, such as working to get child meal sites to serve more than one meal at a time to avoid contact.
The organization launched hungerfreeok.org/covid19, which shows every child meal site across the state for COVID-19 response and shows the different resources available for families.
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