Salvation Army ending feeding program

The Salvation Army will no longer feed people hot meals after Aug. 31, as the organization is ending its feeding program with the closure of its emergency shelter.

The Salvation Army serves breakfast and dinner each weekday to people who need it, Salvation Army spokesperson Ashley Delamar said.

The Salvation Army feeds an average of 50 people each evening, but an average of 10 or fewer people show up for breakfast, Delamar said.

"That's a volunteer run program for us, and over the last few months, the head count, those coming to the meal service each day is getting lower and lower. We were evaluating the necessity of that program on its own merit," Delamar said.

The program costs $85,000 annually to run, Delamar said.

Dwayne Burks, director of Gateway Gaston, said that the absence of a meal in the morning will create a "vacuum" in downtown Gastonia.

"Gastonia Street Ministries, they provide dinner every night, but it will create a breakfast vacuum," he said.

He said he is working with a church and several other entities to offer a "grab and go" breakfast for people who are homeless.

"We're just waiting on one church who has to get their pastor's permission to move forward. It's a church over on the west side of town," Burks said.

The news of the termination of the Salvation Army's meal service came in the wake of an announcement that the Salvation Army will close its emergency homeless shelter.

Salvation Army leadership said they found that closing the shelter, which has not been at capacity for at least three years, is more "cost effective," and that the Salvation Army will instead pivot to a program aimed at preventing homelessness.