In what has become a familiar pattern, donations to The Salvation Army Red Kettle campaigns in Northwest Indiana have fallen short of goals while the need for services continues to increase.
The total raised in Lake County was $723,054, some $56,946 less than the goal of $780,000, according to Major Jose A. Tamayo, Lake County coordinator. Strack & Van Til, NIPSCO and The Times Media Co. were key partners in the campaign, he said.
To try to boost donations, The Lake County Salvation Army even brought the Red Kettles back out during Super Bowl weekend at various local sports bars.
Porter County’s Red Kettle drive “did better than in 2015” when only $113,905 was raised, said Major Jon Welch, of the Valparaiso-based Salvation Army. This year’s goal of $130,000 wasn’t reached, but $121,614.17 was collected, Welch said.
Two Salvation Army locations serve LaPorte County — in LaPorte and Michigan City. The LaPorte-based Salvation Army had a goal of $85,000, but came up $23,000 short, said Capt. Sarah Windell, adding a lot depends on the economy.
“I do know from a number of sources that last year (2016) was down all over the place,” Tamayo said.
The iconic Red Kettle campaign constitutes The Salvation Army’s biggest annual fundraiser. Money collected is used to make Christmas a happier time with toys for children and gift cards for food, Tamayo said.
What remains after Christmas goes into the budget to fund other social services, he said. The Salvation Army Corps budgets are based on a fiscal year starting in October, he added.
Those programs, including assistance with rent, utilities and especially food that The Salvation Army provides throughout the year, could be affected, all three officers said.
“With the increased need, we are concerned because we did not reach our goal,” Tamayo said. “It’s going to be rough in meeting the various needs. Our budgets will have to be revised and our services will have to reviewed, but I still believe God will provide.”
Among those services in Lake County are a hot meal program in East Chicago and food pantries in Hammond, Munster and Gary.
“We may have to look at reducing the amount of food or reduce the number of days the pantries are open,” Tamayo said.
“We purchase food from the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana. They do charge us for the food although it’s pennies to the pound. But we also have to purchase food such as canned vegetables that aren’t available at the Food Bank to make nutritious meals,” he said.
Welch said the Porter County Salvation Army will “adjust the budget to work on ways to cut expenses in small ways. We will stay on target as far as helping people in need.”
About 200 to 300 people throughout Porter County are helped each month with utilities and rent assistance, Welch said. Another 100 to 200 are provided with bread.
Windell said about 800 individuals visit the LaPorte-based food pantry each month with 350 served in the soup kitchen.
“We have 300 kids in our backpack pogram,” she said about the mission that provides backpacks containing food for weekend meals for children, who receive free lunch at school.
Due to donations’ downturn, Windell said The Salvation Army in LaPorte is exploring new avenues for funding programs. One idea would be to ask individuals or groups to sponsor a child for the backpack program, she said.
“If those efforts don’t work,” Windell said, "we will look at what programs we will be cutting."