The Veteran Center in Newhall currently has a food pantry, computers, library and resource table. | Photo: Emily Alvarenga / The Signal.

Amid numerous facility closures and health concerns across the world, the Santa Clarita Veteran Services Collaborative has announced a reduction of hours and services for its veteran center in Newhall.

On Tuesday, March 17, the veteran center will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Wednesday from noon to 6 p.m., and on Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. These hours will only apply to this week according to Jeff Stabile, director of business services for the collaborative.

“We want to see how things go and to make sure that our volunteers are okay to come and help,” Stabile said. “As we get towards the end of Thursday, we’ll have an update about what the hours for next week will be.”

Additionally, the center will suspend its food distribution services until further notice. Instead Stabile advised veterans who would normally rely on the service to visit the food pantry or Salvation Army for assistance.

“We’re not trained in food handling, which is why we limit what we have in our facility to packaged goods, and we’d like to err on the side of caution,” he said. “When a lot of people come in looking for food, they’ll pick up and put down a lot of different packages of food, and form our standpoint that could be an easy way to transmit the virus. We don’t want that for our veteran families, so we’ll be discontinuing the food distribution until we feel it is safe.”

The rest of the services and resources that the center provides will remain intact during the adjusted hours and move services scheduled for affected days to another day of the week.

“We’ll constantly be updating the community through our website and social media pages,” Stabile said. “People can still call our number and leave messages if they have questions, even on days that we’re closed, and we will continually be checking and responding.”

For more information, visit scv-vets.org or call 661-753-3559.