BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — The Boone County Quick Response Team received $23,000 from the Milan Puskar Foundation to continue its work across the county of providing addiction treatment services, recovery services and hot meals.

"Especially with the government issues, the amount of people that's coming together trying to make ends meet with food items and not just food items for us," Program Director Bridget Chafin said. "But with this grant, we're able to place hygiene and baby items that will be needed in those blessing boxes."

In the early days of the government shutdown, the QRT had a lapse in funding that resulted in the Boone County Commission stepping in to fill the gap, giving the QRT nearly $32,000 to keep their services available to the public, with the stipulation it would be paid back once the federal funding was received.

While the federal funding has yet to be restored, peer recovery coach Barry Stowers said the grant money they've received goes much further than putting food on the table.

"Not only does it go to the blessing boxes, but again, those hot meals," Stowers said. "It's just an amazing thing. If you feed somebody, you open up that door for a little bit more trust. I think that's helped us tremendously getting more people into the treatment that they need."

Stowers said the funding the QRT receives reaches far beyond just addiction treatment.

"Fill the role of helping out with anyone that's homeless even if they're not dealing with any addiction problems," he said. "So we can kind of help coach them into getting into a shelter or we even have grant funds that we can help get somebody back home."