Johnson City Salvation Army adjusts services, plans to focus on shelter

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – The Salvation Army of Johnson City announced changes to the services it offers.

The organization is ending its day center and free dinner service and snack bags offered to the community.

According to Majors R.C. Duskin and Maureen Diffley, the changes are due to safety, staffing, and funding, with a plan to shift focus to where they believe it’s needed most: the shelter.

“We’re going to shift our attention to really ensuring that our shelter guests have a great experience,” Diffley said. “That they get their three meals a day and they get all the attention and case management they need.”

The Salvation Army provides a shelter for those in need of housing, with a capacity of 55. Diffley said that the shelter is a part of the organization they need to focus on.

“There’s nothing quite like it in our city,” Diffley said. “And so we want to make sure that everyone who comes to the program has as great of an experience as they can.”

In order to do this, the majors decided to stop the daily meal program, which provided dinner and a snack bag to those outside the shelter. The goal is to make sure shelter residents have the food they need.

“You can spread yourself too thin when you try to do too many things,” Diffley said. “And so looking at funding is not the same as when the feeding program began.”

This change makes things difficult for people like Donnie Ward, who finds himself needing those meals.

“There seems to be more resources for helping people get housing and things of that nature,” Ward said. “But food is the biggest thing, the biggest problem here.”

Ward sees this issue reflected in the food sources offered in the area.

“They opened up a new place,” Ward said. “I don’t know how long ago, but that’s the only other place I know of that serves dinner.”

The dinner and snack bag service is set to end on July 17. The Johnson City Salvation Army is also working on a veterans wing to the shelter, which would add 15 rooms for homeless military veterans.

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