November 29, 2010

Salvation Army kettle donations drop

One of the Salvation Army's most recognizable fundraisers — the Red Kettle campaign —isn't performing well in its first week and representatives are pointing toward a new Giant Food policy as the reason. The National Capital Area Salvation Army reported today that the campaign — where volunteers and paid personnel stand outside shopping centers during the holidays ringing a bell to draw attention to the large red bucket next to them — has seen a $74,000 drop in donations compared to the same week last year.

Red Kettles collected $158,375 between Nov. 12 and 20 this year, compared to $232,378 in the same week in 2009. Area Commander Major Steve Morris, reported today that "the economy's tight hold on family budgets" and a new policy instituted by Giant Food account for the decrease. The grocer's policy reduced the number of days the Salvation Army can be at the grocery stores to one week in November and one week in December for four hours each day. SOURCE: Gazette

2 comments:

retgroclk said...

As a former employee of Giant I am disappointed by Giant's actions concerning the Salvation Army.

It was bad enough when some of the store employees were informed that they could not say Merry Christmas to the customers(This happend at the Giant that use to be in Kemp Mill). We were also forbidden to say Happy Easter.

It is a sad state of affairs when in the name of politica correctness- the feelings of some are obscured by the feelings of a bunch of over sensitive others.

I still say Merry Christmas.
Bob Fustero

Robin Ficker said...

Giant should be primarily concerned with what goes on inside their stores and let the customers deal with what goes on outside.