PORT ANGELES – With the economic impacts of COVID-19 and the Governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” proclamation, your local Salvation Army in Port Angeles is seeing a growing need in the community. We caught up with Majors Ron and Barbara Wehnau to get the latest on how they’re adapting to the new normal.
“We’re seeing the usual clients that we would normally see throughout the year, but we’re also seeing an influx of faces that we’ve never seen before. So we’re seeing a different shift in the people.”
“We have changed the way that we’re doing services right now. We are doing our breakfast and lunch out-the-door as to-go meals. And then our food bank, we are doing pre-packed food boxes. We’ve started doing a drive-by food box.”
Those to-go meals are available Monday through Friday. Breakfast is served from 8-9, and lunch is from noon to 1. The food bank’s pre-packed boxes and bags are available Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 until 3:50 pm.
The Salvation Army Food Bank serves pantry goods, meats, dairy, fresh produce and pastries.
The Wehnaus report that since the economic changes began last month, they have seen their funding from local donations drop about 60%, and they could certainly put your donations of non-perishable foods to good use as well. Ironically, the painful closures of local restaurants have been a windfall for the Salvation Army.
“We have been blessed, as far as our soup kitchen, by a number of local businesses that took their product that they were not going to be able to use, not be able to prepare themselves, and brought them to us. So we’ve been able, especially salads, things like that, to do really well with our meals here.”
The Salvation Army is at 123 S. Peabody in Port Angeles, and the phone number is 452-7679. If you’d like to mail in a donation, send it to PO Box 2229, Port Angeles, 98362.
Photo: The Wehnaus.