MARSHALL — It was one of the hardest decisions they’ve ever had to make, Brandy Ricketts said. But with COVID-19 making it harder to keep volunteers and area families safe, the organizers of Lyon County Heart to Heart had to make some changes.

While the area Christmas charity will be providing food boxes for families in need, they will not be offering gifts for children this year. The amount of close contact among donors and volunteers helping to sort and wrap gifts would be a risk for spreading COVID-19.

“That was a really hard conversation for us,” said Ricketts, a member of the Lyon County Heart to Heart board. Over the years, the holiday gifts have been “such a huge component of Heart to Heart.”

Trying to figure out how to adapt to social distancing was something Heart to Heart organizers worked on for months, Ricketts said.

“We were meeting every week since September to figure out how this is going to look,” she said. COVID-19 wasn’t going to go away by December. The question for board members, Ricketts said, was “How can we make it work without putting more people at risk?”

A lot of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 involve minimizing contact and cutting down on indoor crowds. However, Ricketts said a big part of Lyon County Heart to Heart is the community members who donate gifts, and volunteer to wrap and sort them. With hundreds of gifts needing to be wrapped and distributed, it would be hard to cut down on interaction between volunteers and gift recipients, or to keep up with cleaning and disinfecting work spaces.

Although it was hard not to offer gifts this year, Heart to Heart organizers decided they needed to help protect at-risk people, Ricketts said.

“Curbside pickup is really what it’s going to look like,” Ricketts said of Heart to Heart operations this year. Area families can register for a food box, and receive a postcard with details for picking it up. It will be important to keep the postcard, she said, because residents will need it when they pull up outside the National Guard armory in Marshall. Heart to Heart recipients will have a set time to arrive at the armory, where they can show their postcard and have a food box placed in their vehicle.

Ricketts said organizers are still trying to determine whether they will be able to include some kind of gifts with this year’s food box. If it’s possible, the package might include a family gift instead of individual gifts for children, she said.

Heart to Heart will still accept gift donations, although they will be kept for next year’s distribution. Monetary donations are preferred this year, Ricketts said.

Registration forms to receive a Heart to Heart food box must be mailed in, and postmarked on or before Nov. 24. Forms can also be dropped off at the Southwest Health and Human Services office at 607 West Main Street in Marshall. Distribution of the food boxes will be on Saturday, Dec. 12.