FEATURE PAGE
March 7, 2019






SALLY'S KITCHEN:
"Salvationists" provide meals to the needy


Major Kari Booth (left) confers with board member Lynn Ragsdale during lunchtime at Sally's Kitchen. Hank Booth (standing) is Kari's father and a do-just-about-everything volunteer at the Smithfield center.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, the Salvation Army's center in Smithfield was inundated with folks in need of a hot meal.

"We were serving 50 meals three times a day," Major Kari Booth recalled.

So why not continue that kind of mission beyond short-term disaster relief? the local agency's leaders asked themselves.

The result is "Sally's Kitchen," a somewhat daily endeavor to serve the community's needy without any questions or payments. Lunch is served to any and all who come on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Supper is served on Thursdays. On Wednesdays meals are offered to anyone who attends the Salvation Army's mid-week church activities.

Where does that name, "Sally's Kitchen," come from? Major Booth offered a history lesson to explain:

During World War I women volunteers from the Salvation Army served doughnuts and coffee and such to soldiers on the front lines, who began calling these angels of mercy "Sally," a nickname for "Salvationist."

The Sally's Kitchen of Smithfield's Salvationists serves upwards of 150 meals each seating at a cost to the agency of about $1 per meal, or $150 a day. Individual sponsors cover some of that cost, supplemented by gifts of hot dogs every other week from Smithfield-based Carolina Packers and leftover breads and sweets every Tuesday night from the local Panera Bread restaurant. Southern Bank helped launch the program with a one-time gift of $5,000, Major Booth noted.

"Anybody can come here," said Hank Booth, Major Booth's father. "And we have a few regulars who do chip in donations from time to time."

"We also do take-outs," he added, with a limit of two meals per person coming by to make deliveries.


The Salvation Army's Thrift Store generates much of the revenue that supports the local agency's programs
In addition, Sally's Kitchen has been taking meals to shut-ins on major holidays when volunteers handling the local "meals on wheels" program managed by Community and Senior Services take a break.

The Salvation Army based at Smithfield actually serves two counties: Harnett as well as Johnston. The local board of directors includes a number of well-known community servants. The local agency no longer receives aid from the United Way, and it gets no government funding. It's dependent on individual and corporate donors and profits from its popular Thrift Store.

William Booth (unrelated to Kari Booth) was an "independent traveling evangelist" in England who started the movement in the 1860s that grew into the international Salvation Army. Construction of the first elements of the present-day Smithfield center on North Bright Leaf Boulevard began in 1960.

For more information, or to make a donation, contact Major Booth by calling 919-934-9102 or e-mailing kari.booth@uss.salvation.org.