Red Kettle Season Donations Needed For The Duluth Salvation Army

DULUTH, Minn. — The Red Kettle Queen made an appearance at the Miller Hill Mall Tuesday.

Located by the JCPenney, the Queen’s hopes were to get more families and children involved in giving back. But with only 16 days left of the Red Kettle Season, the Queen is concerned about where the donations numbers stand.

Funds raised during the Christmas season go into the Duluth Salvation Army’s general fund which subsidizes all of their social service programs, most of which run at a deficit.

“I mean we’re $6-$7,000 behind last year and the year before and before that I think maybe we were at $80,000 at this point and we’re at like 60? So, I am concerned about that especially just with the trend. Even when we have full days of ringers the donations are down, so I’m not really sure what else we can do,” said Cyndi Lewis, director of development for the Duluth Salvation Army.

And the Salvation Army’s food shelf isn’t doing so well either. Last week they even had to turn people away as they didn’t have food left to give for the month of November.

“We just got restocked for December, but that’s supposed to last us for the entire month. And yesterday was food shelf and it’s already looking a little sad in there,” said Lewis.

The Salvation Army says non-perishable food donations are always welcome, but monetary donations can stretch the dollar further because of the resources that they rely on to purchase food. You can also help out by signing up to ring.