United Way offices launching fundraisers to help during pandemic

• Rachel McDevitt/StateImpact Pennsylvania
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  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
  
  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
  
  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

 Rachel McDevitt / WITF

(Harrisburg) — Nonessential businesses in Pennsylvania are closing to try to slow the spread of coronavirus, meaning some workers might not get paid.

But area nonprofits are stepping in to help.

The United Way of Lebanon County has created a community support fund meant to benefit people who could miss paychecks as a result of schools and businesses closing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CEO Brooke Smith said 40 percent of people in Lebanon County live either in poverty or in a situation in which they work one or more jobs and still struggle to make ends meet.

“And so these are the people who are living paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “And any disruption in their employment, one emergency could really cause a financial hardship for them.”

Smith said she hopes the money will help fill any gaps between expected government relief and the community’s needs.

The money will go to support social service agencies who could see increased demand for help with food, rent, and utility bills.

“We’re really trying to remain fluid, because as things are ever-changing with the COVID-19 guidelines and warnings and things that we’re seeing in our community, we want to make sure that we’re able to respond, perhaps to needs we don’t even know we might have in the aftermath of this,” Smith said.

The United Way of the Capital Region is also partnering with the Foundation for Enhancing Communities on a similar fund.

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