Kettle Donations: Feeding families
Ever wonder how The Salvation Army uses your red kettle donations?
If so, you’re not alone. For 125 years, people have been dropping money into red kettles blissfully unaware of the drastic amounts of good they are accomplishing.
“Kettle Donations” is an eight-part series that provides answers. We’ll explore a new Salvation Army program every week until Christmas. In the end, you’ll understand precisely how your kettle donations change lives during the Christmas season and year-round.
Your kettle donations become bags of groceries for people and families with empty cupboards.
In Minnesota and North Dakota, The Salvation Army operates dozens of food shelves that last year provided nearly 190,000 bags of groceries. In the Twin Cities alone, our eight metro area food shelves distributed about 3.5 million pounds of food.
All of these food shelves have one important thing in common: they strive to serve specific needs.
Our food shelf in Brainerd (pictured above and below), for example, offers special food boxes for those experiencing homelessness.
“We provide foods that are easy to prepare and can be cooked over a campfire, like hamburgers and hot dogs,” said Linda Loftus, Brainerd food shelf coordinator.
More examples: The Salvation Army in Duluth offers a medical food shelf for people with doctor-referred dietary needs. And several Twin Cities Salvation Army food shelves are specifically designed for homeless youth.
Additionally, most of our Twin Cities food shelves offer culturally-specific foods, including Asian, Hispanic and African fare.
“These populations are very happy with our efforts,” said Landis Dean, social worker at the Maplewood Salvation Army.
Salvation Army food shelves are a godsend to people like Chris, a Brainerd resident caring for his two nephews while their mother battles mental health issues. Although he has worked most of his life, he is currently unemployed and looking for work.
“I’m trying to help my sister and her kids, but it’s almost financially impossible,” Chris said. “This food shelf bridges the gap. It’s a blessing.”
2015 kettle season
A new kettle season officially begins the day after Thanksgiving, with select kettle locations beginning earlier.
There will be about 900 kettle locations throughout Minnesota and North Dakota. Please give a little something each time you pass by one, knowing your gift will allow The Salvation Army to give big bags of groceries to hungry individuals and families.
If you’d like to take your kettle experience to the next level, sign up to be a bell ringer. In just two hours you’ll raise an average of $60 – enough money for The Salvation Army to provide three days of groceries for a family of four.