The Mustard Seed will be keeping its extreme weather shelter at the Kamloops Alliance Church open for another month, until March 31.

Mustard Seed Managing Director, Kelly Thomson, tells NL News the extension comes because of the recent drop in temperatures and the increase in snow in the Kamloops area.

“We did open on the the 21st and then we were open up until Saturday night and so I mean that was definitely the catalyst to have that conversation,” he said.

“I was pretty sure somebody from the media would reach out and say, you know, you’re about to end, what is going to happen in March?’ We decided to be proactive. It is a good partnership and its helping a lot of people.”

Thomson says there have been over 30 people a night at this extreme weather shelter during the 19 days of operations since Dec. 14 of last year. It opens when nighttime temperature reach -10 C or when there is five cm of snow on the ground.

“The goal is helping people and if it gets cold in the next week for example or couple weeks for now, it is a whole lot better to be active and ready to be open then wishing we could,” he added.

“The Church has agreed to continue to support our vulnerable community in this way. This is a way to keep people safe and warm through the colder nights, allowing them to find support and protection from life-threatening incidents that can occur during winter weather.”

He notes the Kamloops Alliance Church has also provided over 275 volunteer hours towards things like shelter set-up, meals, or spending time with people seeking refuge from the cold.

“I think it really comes down to like we said early when we first started this, we’re kind of dipping our toe into the water to find out what it looked like, and some comfort level for both Kamloops Alliance and ourselves, because we’ve never done an extreme shelter,” Thomson said.

“What we have learned over the last ten weeks is that it has worked well.”

Earlier this month, The Mustard Seed said the shelter had been busy with Thomson noting he felt things have gone well, as they’ve tried to be good neighbours.

“One of the things that we’re going to do is have some of that community [come in and] we’re going to offer a night where you can come and have coffee and dessert and talk to us because I’d love to know what the experience was,” Thomson said at the time.

“Did it go as well as we think it did? Did we manage to address your concerns when we talked back in early December? Those are all things that will help us get better.”