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For four months, Salvation Army captains, Faith and John Woodard have been making a home in Austin.

Succeeding Major Jeff Strickler and his wife Cindy, the Woodards are coming to embrace the community, just as they themselves have been embraced.

“We love the city,” John Woodard said. “People here have been very gracious and helpful. It seems like a nice community to live in. I know we’re going to like it here.”

Having served in Minot, North Dakota prior to their stop in Austin, the Woodards have been captains for about 10 years, giving them much needed experience in serving the community and serving their own convictions.

“We’re called by God,” Woodard said. “It’s not a choice for us. We really have a calling from God to do it. It takes a lot of personal fortitude to do. A lot of people think of it maybe as a job, but it’s a calling to us. We just love people in that manner and we want to welcome them.”

To do that, the Woodards have a lot of goals in mind, including the continuing efforts to serve the community’s citizens in whatever way that might be including through the food shelf, community meals or by meeting the people’s spiritual needs.

They want to build a congregation.

“That’s another thing that’s great about this community. They’ve accepted the fact that the Salvation Army is a church,” Woodard said. “That’s our focus and our mission is to save souls and help suffering humanity in Christ’s name.”

In order to do that, the Woodards and those working through the Salvation Army will have to face an incredibly busy holiday season as well as a few challenges.

First, and perhaps most publicly, is the idea that the Salvation Army isn’t going anywhere.

“Making sure that we’re still here,” Woodard said. “A lot of people think that because our thrift store closed that and somehow heard some rumors of things like that of us moving or things like that. We are still doing what we normally did before with our emergency housing, with our community meals, food shelf — all of those things to help people in need.”

While the desire to be there for people is still high, Woodard acknowledges that the Salvation Army has very real needs in order to continue that mission.

That need arises from the fact that simply put the Salvation Army is being used more than it has in the past in most all areas.

The community meal program has seen a 40% increase alone. Where before they had been serving 40-45 people, the Salvation Army is now serving 80-85 people on a regular basis with an average of about 80 meals a day being served.

In the food shelf, the SA is seeing 50-60 families every day who are shopping, which in turn can be costly for the facility.

“We have grants that are available to us from the United Way and also from the Hormel Foundation. We’re looking for volunteers mostly to help with those situations.”

That’s at the heart of the Salvation Army’s needs. With a small regular staff, the organization relies heavily on volunteers to help with areas including in the food shelf as well as unloading trucks.

Woodard said the SA is looking for at least 15-20 that can come in for a couple hours.

“That’s all we need for our trucks,” he said. “Having a limited staff and doing that is a big thing.”

But the need for volunteers lies outside of these areas as well, especially as the holiday season ramps up and the Salvation Army nears kicking off its annual Red Kettle Campaign, which it will do on Nov. 29 during Hometown Christmas in downtown Austin.

Woodard said the SA in Austin has set a goal of $75,000, which goes directly toward operating expenses. Last year, it fell short of its goal by $10,000, which highlights the need of volunteers to help reach that goal this year.

“We will be setting up a few of our kettles before (Nov. 29) on the 16th. We’re allowed to do that this year,” Woodard said. “Any money we can get from the fundraiser starting in our Red Kettle season earlier than that we obviously want to do.”

People can register to volunteer in the effort by going to registertoring.com.

The Woodards also want people to know about the Angel Tree program, which sets up the opportunity for people to shop for Christmas presents for families in need.

“They can shop for individual boys and girls or families,” Woodard said. “Whatever is available on the tree. Those tags will go to those sites that normally have one. We have some new ones too that will do that.”

People will start seeing Angel Tree sites begin popping up on Nov. 16. To apply for the Angel Tree, visit: https://saangeltree.org/ Applications close on Dec. 10.

People have also begun signing up for the annual Thanksgiving Baskets as well as the annual meal served at the SA, which is sponsored by the Jim and Tammy Snee family and will be held at 5 p.m. on Nov. 27.

Then, on Dec. 18 at noon, the Salvation Army teams with Hy-Vee for the Feed a Family distribution at noon.

Anybody wanting more information or to volunteer should visit the Salvation Army at 409 1st Ave NE or call 1-507-437-4566.

“I think the community responds well and its foundations and its entities help with food insecurity,” Woodard said. “People really want to give.”