Kim Gilbert knows what sort of value the Salvation Army can bring to someone who just needs a helping hand, because she’s needed it herself. It appears to be one reason why she works so hard to bring people what they need, and to do so with dignity.

Gilbert, social services coordinator for the Salvation Army Food Distribution Center in Aberdeen, spoke to The Daily World on Tuesday morning, Aug. 23, to point out that the Salvation Army is very much still in operation. After 82 years in Aberdeen, the nonprofit isn’t leaving town.

Gene Schermer, formerly a chairperson of the Grays Harbor Salvation Army Board, teamed up with Gilbert to address a concern. His concern stems from the news about the new space for the Aberdeen Museum of History — 118 W. Wishkah St.

The city of Aberdeen bought the entire red building for $350,000 on Feb. 23, according to The Daily World.

The Salvation Army Food Distribution Center serves out of the first floor of the same building, but has a different address — 120 W. Wishkah St. The nonprofit’s runs out of a 2,500-square-foot space. The nonprofit is currently on a 12-month lease for the space, but has two six-month options to extend if necessary.

“After a series of articles about the city taking this (building) over as a museum,” Schermer said, “we were somewhat afraid that people thought the Salvation Army was going away. And (in the Salvation Army’s case,) it is anything but that.”

Soon, the Aberdeen branch will be able to give its customers a grocery market type of setting. That setting will help customers more than the current, narrow, building can accommodate.

“Hopefully, before this time next year, we’ll be in our new food bank,” Schermer said.

Schermer and Gilbert relayed the details of the Salvation Army building’s rebuild at 215 N. G St. The brick building there sits mostly unused. The rebuilding of that 5,100-square-foot space will allow for Salvation Army customers a grocery store type of experience. There’s not nearly enough room to let them come in and choose inside the current downtown space.

“It will be a client-choice food bank,” Gilbert said. “It’ll be set up similar to a supermarket. Customers will come in, they’ll grab a cart, and they get to shop for the foods that they eat and use.”

Schermer said there will also be volunteers to keep the clients from grabbing too much of one thing.

“You can have one of these, or two of these, that sort of thing,” Schermer said. “But they will take the food they want. Right now, they get what they get. If they can’t use the barley or the beans, then oftentimes it goes to waste.”

But, the volunteers still pack the food boxes with those types of items. The goal is to feed a family with what they need to survive.

The Salvation Army is supposed to send out bids this week to start the actual rebuild. Funds from the sale of the building to the city enabled the nonprofit to start the project. In addition to the building’s sale, the Salvation Army received another grant and is launching a community campaign for capital expenditures.

Gilbert said the nonprofit will ask the community to help because the new center will bring an “ever-lasting” benefit to the area.

Schermer said the bids for the rebuild are at least $500,000. The architectural work is complete.

The rebuilt Salvation Army building will not just be a food bank, according to Schermer. It will be a social service center.

The Salvation Army, which helps with basic needs such as food distribution, clothes, rent, utilities, and natural disaster relief, will run fully from the 215 N. G St., location it is rebuilt.

In the last year, the Salvation Army Food Distribution Center helped about 7,900 people, according to Gilbert.

“That ranges from food, all the way up to rental assistance, and everything in between,” Gilbert said.

On Monday, Aug. 22, the service center held a back-to-school shopping event for under-privileged children who needed new school clothes. And then, annually, the branch provides a Christmas toy drive, and food baskets for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The holiday food baskets have all the fixings.

When the flooding, rapid snowmelt, king tides, soil erosion, and record flooding all combined to hit Grays Harbor County in early January, the nonprofit was there to help.

“I know after the flooding there were people who the water had destroyed their washer and dryer,” Gilbert said. “So, we helped them get vouchers for a local laundromat until they got that figured out.”

The nonprofit helps with utilities on a case-by-case basis, according to Gilbert. She said it depends on the number of people in the home, the income, and the expenses.

“For instance, if you have $2,000 coming in, your rent is $1,200, and your bills pile up, that’s one thing,” Gilbert said. “But, if you have a $6,000 income per month and your rent is $800, I’m probably honestly not gonna help, unless somebody’s got cancer and they haven’t been able to work for a couple months.”

Schermer said the Salvation Army can’t just operate on one set of parameters.

“The idea is to help people in need,” Schermer said.

Gilbert knows what the word “need” truly means. She said she was homeless during parts of her childhood.

“My parents were addicted to drugs, that’s all they cared about,” Gilbert said. “And so we slept on the street for about two weeks with my younger brother and sister.”

When she was 15, she was back on the street. At 18, she was back on the street for three months until she saved enough for an apartment.

“I would say the roughest one was when I had my daughter,” Gilbert said. “When I got released from the hospital, I was homeless. We lived out of my car for about two weeks. But, now, I have a home.”

Fortunately for Gilbert and for her daughter, people stepped in when she needed help.

“People like the Salvation Army,” Gilbert said. “I came and got food. People like this really make a difference.”

Remembering those rough times, she wants to make sure the next person she helps gets a hand up. Gilbert’s daughter Riley, now 14, helps too.

“I think a hand up makes somebody feel like you care,” Gilbert said. “Rather than just saying ‘here you go, that’s it,’ because that can make somebody feel crummy. But a hand up actually makes a person feel like someone else cares about the situation they’re in and wants to help.”

People seeking help from the Salvation Army Food Distribution can call 360-533-1062, and speak to Gilbert. People without phone service, Schermer advised they knock on the door. There are people there who can help.