The Salvation Army in Vancouver is celebrating the start of construction next week on its community resource center.
The faith-based nonprofit is expanding its Northeast 112th Avenue campus — which also means expanded services for vulnerable people in Vancouver. The new building will feature a shopping-style food pantry with a space for children to play while parents shop, a clothing pantry, case management offices, classrooms, computers, a teaching kitchen and a larger space for its after-school program. It will expand The Salvation Army’s footprint from about 10,000 square feet to 19,000 square feet.
To celebrate, there will be a public ceremony at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the chapel at 1500 N.E. 112th Ave. Afterward, there will be a ribbon cutting on the south field, where the new structure will be built. When it’s complete, programs currently operating out of a leased building on Northeast 47th Avenue will move to the new facility, consolidating the two campuses.
“There are significant benefits to having all programs under one roof,” Major Michael Nute, director of The Salvation Army in Vancouver, said in a news release. “First, the neighbors who need our services will have one place to come, and that place will have expanded services for them. Second, we are no longer spending dollars on a lease so we are saving money.”
