Lebanon Salvation Army serves hundreds in need at new facility

(KY3)
Published: Aug. 16, 2018 at 5:04 AM CDT
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Volunteers at the Salvation Army in Lebanon are showing off their new space with shelves stocked full of food and a soup kitchen.

"There's folks out there that I know that need food, and their children," volunteer Steven Lee Damron, with the Lebanon Salvation Army, said.

The building is more than three times the size of the old location and it's causing a chain reaction.

More volunteers in Lebanon are wanting to help people in need.

"It makes me feel good here, that I'm helping," Damron said.

The large space is already serving hundreds of more people than it ever has before.

"In July, we served 1,110 people, almost 500 of them were elderly people, and there were 270 single women with children, there was like 78 single men and the rest were families," Director Sue Watson, with the Salvation Army, Laclede County Service Unit, said.

The soup kitchen will provide soups and sandwiches to people this fall and the large location is making it easier to help more people.

"Before when people came in they would have to wait in line out the door because we didn't have much seating," Watson said. "Now we've got a big room where everyone can sit down and we've got a new system and instead of them having to fill out an application every time they do a card one time. We can just find their card and mark it. It's faster, it's more convenient for them."

Steven Lee Damron is a volunteer who just started at the new location. He plans to continue to pay his efforts forward knowing his fellow colleagues would always be there for him in a time of need.

"Someday I might be here needing help, I might need help, I don't know my fate, only God knows my fate," he said.

"This building has just been such a blessing to us," Watson said.

The Lebanon Area Foundation gave more than $200,000 to buy and fix up the building. Community donations have also poured in to support the cause.

Now that volunteers are settled in the new building. the Salvation Army is now focusing on programs for people around Lebanon.

The Salvation Army in Lebanon is located at 435 Garfield, Lebanon Mo. You can contact them at 417-532-5135.