Jackson Salvation Army falls short on donations this year

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Mary Linda Holden is ringing in donations for The Salvation Army during the final hours of the red kettle campaign. But because of sparse donors, the bucket wasn’t filling up.

“I just think it’s because we’ve gotten away from the true meaning -- the true meaning of Christmas," said Holden.

Michelle Hartfield of the Salvation Army in Jackson said people aren’t carrying cash so they introduced mobile payment options, but that didn’t help much.

“So our goal originally was 450,000 and we are not even to 300,000 yet," said Hartfield.

“Then this year in particular, thanksgiving was so late, and we have a lot national agreements with chains where we cannot ring in until after thanksgiving. So in effect, we lost an entire week of time to have those kettles out,” said Hartfield.

Without the money, many of their programs may not be able to operate at their current level.

"It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year, so we live off it as long as we can. The food pantry, our homeless shelter, our arts and sports programs for children, the senior programs, all of it is funded with these kettles.”

Holden believes they can still get the help if people give, even just a dollar.

“There’s over 800,000 people in Mississippi. If everybody would give one dollar, that’s $800,000 if you just look at it like that. And we can do it. Jackson can do it; Mississippi can do it," she said.

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