Parts of the Greater Cincinnati area got a record amount of snow from Sunday to Monday. The winter storm effectively shut down the city – airports, roads, businesses – and those of us who stayed home stayed warm with soup, heated blankets and heaters set to high.

Not everyone is as fortunate. And as it gets even colder this week, those who aren’t will be at greater risk of harm.

According to the most recent data from local nonprofit Strategies to End Homelessness, over 6,000 Cincinnatians in 2023 were experiencing homelessness, 1,000 of them being children. And Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that an average of 700 unhoused Americans die from the cold every year.

At the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky, all 68 beds were full Sunday night. About 20 people were at the 24-hour warming center in Covington and five slept overnight at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newport, which is part of a new partnership with the shelter.

Looking ahead this week, things are only getting worse for the people at risk.

Cincinnati is facing below freezing temperatures for the rest of the week, with lows expected to range between 3 degrees and 10 degrees.

These temperatures leave unhoused Cincinnatians at risk for developing life-threatening conditions like frostbite and hypothermia, which results when the body temperature drops below 95 degrees and can lead to heart failure.

Here’s where and how you can help people stay safe:

Grab extra paper goods, coffee, cereal out of the pantry

Disposable coffee cups, utensils, bowls, plates and napkins are in short supply at warming stations and local emergency shelters.

“A lot of daily-use items have more than doubled for us in terms of what the need is,” Kim Webb, executive director at the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky, told The Enquirer.

Food, she said, is also welcome, especially cereal, milk, coffee and other pantry staples.

Other organizations, listed at the bottom of this story, have similar requests.

Grab the hotel toiletries you saved

Do you have those miniature bottles of shampoo, mouthwash or body wash? That’s worth donating as long as the products are unused.

Toiletries, laundry detergent, diapers and feminine hygiene products are also an ongoing need, service providers say.

Want to go the extra mile? For a buck or two, you can grab a travel-size bottle of toiletries wherever you do your shopping and donate those.

Clean out your closets

Just about all service providers are accepting winter clothing donations. That includes gently used jackets, sweaters, hats, gloves, boots and pants.

This is also a great time to donate sleeping bags, tarps, blankets and tents, according to a social media post from local volunteer Alyssa Boiman.

Open your wallet

If you have the means, you can help local organizations without leaving your home or having to do any household chores like sorting clothes.

Just about every organization accepts monetary donations online. But beware of scams.

For instance, there’s an incorrect Venmo link making the rounds on social media for the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky. The best way to make sure your money goes to the right place is to go directly through an organization’s website or social media page for the right information.

We’ve also linked to the best resources we can in the list below.

Final step: take donations here

Once you decide how you want to help your neighbors, here are some places you can take your donations after the roads are cleared. (For those of you wondering, homemade goods like brownies or casseroles cannot be accepted due to health codes.)

• Over-the-Rhine Warming Center (Cincinnati): Located at the Over-the-Rhine Community Center at 1715 Republic St. Doors are open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Needed items include cold weather clothing, paper products like cups and napkins, and nonperishable food. Donations can be dropped off at the center.

Know a helpful organization that should be added to this list? Let us know at jolenea@gannett.com. We’ll update it throughout the week.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: With colder temperatures coming how to help homeless, others in need