Cari McPartland from the Salvation Army spoke at the October 30th meeting of the Government of the Student Body. McPartland spoke primarily about the need for volunteers.

McPartland said members of Friley Meeker house have volunteered to man two different bell-ringing sites for a whole day this year. She said the keetles operate 5,000 hours.

Despite the large number of students on Iowa State’s campus, McPartland said there are currently no individuals from Iowa State who are long term volunteers with the Salvation Army.

“We also attended the volunteer fair in September….We did have a lot of people stop, we sent out a lot of emails and didn’t really get a very good response,” McPartland said.

McPartland said Salvation Army’s Christmas Campaign obtains most of the operating money for the year. GSB donates $1,000 each year through the Analysis of Social Services Evaluation Team, ASSET.

McPartland said Salvation Army does a number of things, including assisting individuals in need with emergency rent and utility services.

Salvation Army also operates a food pantry. McPartland said Iowa State students have utilized the food pantry before and she expects that to continue, especially now as the availability of food stamps goes down.

“Student loans are delayed and so that means they are delayed in paying their rent, and they’re coming to us asking for help,” McPartland said.

McPartland said there are other places in the community that do provide assistance but they don’t help students, while Salvation Army does.