Delivering love and lunch to our community’s most vulnerable

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(Miami, FL) (August 4, 2022) –  With its “Lunch and Love” program, the Salvation Army Miami is providing love and meals to those in need on Miami’s streets.

In an effort to replicate the same impact made at Miami Area Command to the surrounding community, Lunch and Love was developed by David Jenett, Case Worker and Emergency Disaster Services Coordinator. With the use of the FedEx Cares EDS Canteen (pictured above), David and his team were able to serve 150 meals and 50 snack packs to the homeless that are located within the Government Center and North Miami area of Miami-Dade.

David had one thought in mind: it’s necessary and it’s impactful, “Not everyone is able to migrate to our corps so why not bring the assistance to them? We have a Canteen that can go a long way and a team that can stretch the effort even more.” Despite the rainy conditions, the team dedicated nearly four hours of service, with the assistance of Terrance McCray and Susi Goihman.

They even had a helper! When the team needed to draw the meal recipients to one location, an individual on a bike (who is also homeless) rode around the area and alerted everyone else to the free lunch being served. A day filled with love, service, and gratitude would not have been possible without David, Terrance, and Susi’s dedication, their efforts were a big success.

The program will take place once a month throughout Miami-Dade, with the goal of becoming a regular service. The team hopes to make Lunch and Love a bi-weekly effort.

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Thank you to Dunspaugh-Dalton for supporting the Salvation Army Health Resource Center

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Miami, FL – (July 20, 2022) The Salvation Army Miami Area Command has recently partnered up with the Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation of Coral Gables to provide increased healthcare to clients within the community. Their recent donation has assisted in helping us provide care for those served at the Health Resource Center.

Three out of four of the uninsured population are in poverty. The lack of insurance and deprivation results in individuals foregoing preventative care. Those in need are more likely to wait until their health conditions are severe before taking action and pursuing medical attention.

In 2019, the Salvation Army announced the grand opening of the Health Resource Center. With the assistance of community partners including the Health Foundation of South Florida and Camillus Health Concern, the Health Resource Center was made possible and continues to be a vital medical access point for the residents within the shelter. Residents and clients are able to receive more healthcare assistance without the hassle of transportation and delayed 911 dispatch.

The shelter continues to provide assistance to residents including Leroy B, who arrived in spring 2022 at Salvation Army’s emergency shelter in crisis. Leroy, 57, left behind an unstable “nightmare” housing environment and neglected treatment for his diabetes, depression and chronic kidney disease. The physician at the Health Resource Center promptly arranged for dialysis at University of Miami and prescribed medicine to immediately stabilize his condition. With his physician and case manager’s help, he now awaits to move into permanent supportive housing, receives outpatient dialysis thrice weekly and feels much healthier and more hopeful about the future.

“It’s really wonderful. I feel like they care. I feel like I’m being cared about and they get on me when I’m slipping” on taking daily medications,” he said. “If not for this place I would not be here (alive) today.”

Thank you to Dunspaugh-Dalton for helping us better impact our residents and the community.

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COVID-19 RESPONSE

The essential services that The Salvation Army provides on a year-round basis – homeless shelters, food pantries, disaster relief, veteran’s services and others – are for the benefit of our country’s most vulnerable people. The communities we serve have been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need continues to grow. The Salvation Army will continue to open our arms, hearts, and doors to those who need us, but our resources are depleting quickly. We are at work finding alternatives and solutions to this reality, like mobile food service and deliveries to families in need who are sheltering in place, and providing social services utilizing phone calls instead of in-person appointments.

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The Salvation Army Opens Health Resource Center in Miami

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Health Resource Center

Much like its sister commands across the territory, the country and the world, the Miami, Florida, Area Command of The Salvation Army strives to serve its community in a variety of ways. That includes the operation of the Red Shield Lodge, with 256 beds housing individuals seeking to transition into financial independence and reintegrate as working citizens of the community.

With an eye toward that ultimate goal, a new Health Resource Center was dedicated on March 29. In concert with a new chapel for the Hialeah Corps and a full renovation to the lodge itself, the new unit includes specialized medical equipment and a partnership with Camillus Health Concern and the Health Foundation of South Florida.

“We started with this dream,” said Captain Enrique Azuaje, area commander. “How we can enlarge our social service program so that our residents and clients can feel recognized and feel that we are able to continue supporting them in different ways.
Seeing people in an entire perspective, in the soul, in the mind, and also in the physical, in the body. And sometimes people need that kind of support, specifically health support.”

Presently, the Health Resource Center is a part-time unit, with plans to move into a different part of the shelter itself when renovations are fully completed. That move stems from a desire to provide optimal privacy and accommodations to those needing medical services, given the presence of the “Here’s Hope” wing dedicated to serving residents with significant health challenges. Prior to the integration of the HRC, it was often a challenge for medical personnel to arrive in timely fashion to assist these individuals, and the on-site presence of top-shelf equipment and those equipped to operate it will make a tremendous impact.

“This facility has been remodeled, remade, refurbished, refinished, renewed, restored, redeemed for the purposes of doing the same thing in the lives of our guests, of our residents, I love that word. Because that’s what they are,” said Lt. Colonel Ken Luyk, divisional commander.

The lodge renovation also includes remodeled common areas and updated client rooms and social services areas. Plans are in the works for continued expansion, including a playground for youth, but the upgrades already in place are significant and, through it all, the focus remains on the greater goal of providing hope.

“These welcoming surroundings will continue to be a refuge and a place where healing and hope are shepherded,” said Lt. Colonel Luyk. “We dedicate this center to the work of the King, where healing will take place, where hope will be offered, where encouragement will be shared, where compassion will be expressed, and where lives will be transformed through the power of the gospel in his honor and his glory, Amen.”

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Salvation Army Deploying Teams from Florida to Carolinas Ahead of Hurricane Florence

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LUTZ, FL (September 10, 2018) – Having strengthened from a tropical storm over the weekend, Hurricane Florence is expected to increase in significance as it approaches the southeastern United States. As the threat to Florida’s coast has lessened, The Salvation Army will deploy mobile feeding units, staff, and volunteers from across Florida to assist areas where the storm is expected to make landfall in North and South Carolina.

Teams from Clearwater, Cocoa, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Stuart, Tallahassee, and Vero Beach are preparing now to be in place mid-week in anticipation of serving impacted areas after the storm.

“The units being deployed each have the capacity to serve 500 – 1,500 meals per day,” says Steven Hartsook. Salvation Army Director of Emergency Disaster Services.

“The Salvation Army prepares all year to be able to serve where needed. Individual and family preparedness is crucial in advance of a disaster, and we want to remind everyone that the time to prepare for the next storm is now,” says Hartsook.

The Salvation Army will also deploy a 53’ refrigerated feeding support trailer from Florida to North Carolina to assist with transporting food and drinks to affected areas.

To support The Salvation Army’s Hurricane Florence relief efforts, visit www.HelpSalvationArmy.org. For updates on The Salvation Army’s emergency disaster response efforts, visit www.disaster.salvationarmyusa.org.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Lindsay Crossland, Director of Communications
P: 727-403-7766
E: Lindsay.Crossland@uss.salvationarmy.org 

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About The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army, established in London in 1865, has been supporting those in need in His name without discrimination for more than 135 years in the United States. Nearly 25 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through a range of social services: food for the hungry, relief for disaster survivors, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless, and opportunities for underprivileged children. Eighty-two cents of every dollar donated to The Salvation Army are used to support those services in 5,000 communities nationwide. The Salvation Army tracks the level of need across the country with the Human Needs Index (HumanNeedsIndex.org). For more information, visit www.SalvationArmyFlorida.org or follow on Twitter @SalArmyFlorida.

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