BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) -As the government shutdown enters its second day with no definitive end nonprofits are feeling its effects.

“Part of the challenge with a government shutdown is just that so many of our nonprofits provide essential services to our communities, and so when their funding is shutdown or limited it limits what they can do- so they’re probably not getting their invoices paid right now, they’re not getting reimbursements, that’s going to impact their operations and also the services they can provide,” Beth Casey, member of Board of Directors for West Virginia Nonprofit Association said.

Karen Lang serves as co-director at Shepherd’s Corner, a nonprofit in Bridgeport. They provide clothes and food to those in need.

She says they depend on donations from the community and fear that if the government shutdown continues, it will affect what people are able to give, especially with colder weather coming.

“I think that the only way that people will not be donating to us or to any organization is if they don’t have the means to provide for themselves they are going to keep what they have because they can’t go out and purchase new items to be able to get rid of their old items as far as clothing goes and it will hurt our food pantry because we depend on strictly donations so if they can not purchase items that we need for our food pantry we will be hurting then,” Lang said.

Casey said the best way the community can help nonprofits is by reaching out and donating if they are able to and contacting lawmakers.

“Reaching out to our lawmakers advocacy is important now and if we can let our lawmakers and decision makers realize the impact in how much support we need maybe we can leverage them to help get things rolling here with getting our government back to work,” Casey said.