One Army: Yarmouth Community Church purchases new stove for Halifax Centre of Hope

When The Salvation Army’s Yarmouth Community Church went looking for a worthy cause to support, they didn’t have to look far. The southern Nova Scotia church recently donated $21,000 to the Halifax Centre of Hope to purchase of a new commercial stove for the facility’s kitchen.

A 40-bed shelter, that also houses an addictions program and 16 transitional apartments, the Centre of Hope is bustling facility throughout the year. The new gas unit will replace the current electric one that was used to produce 36,000 meals last year alone. Centre of Hope chef Harold Mailman is looking forward to the installation of the new unit, saying that the existing stove created maintenance issues and was long overdue for replacement.

Major Peter Rowe, Corps Officer in Yarmouth, says that he first learned about the need at the Centre of Hope through the Army’s Divisional Headquarters in Halifax. He said his Corps was ready to contribute, in part because at least three men from Yarmouth have attended programs at the Centre of Hope, and the impact it made on them was obvious.

“Divisional Headquarters inquired initially to see if we would consider contributing a portion toward the total,” Major Rowe says. “We knew the good work that was being done at the Centre, because we witnessed it in these changed lives.”

After learning of the need, Major Rowe took it to the church’s finance and mission boards, and he was met with excitement at the prospect of making a significant impact on a critical social service facility. The idea received unanimous support for not just a portion of the required funds, but the entire total.

“We looked at it from the big picture mentality. There was a need, and we had the funds available to meet the need, so it was really a no-brainer,” Major Rowe says.

“We’ve been tremendously blessed at Yarmouth Corps for the past five or six years. We had this money in reserve and we knew there were needs that existed. We could have sat on the money and left it in the bank, but it’s about kingdom building.”

For Captain Bill Preston, Executive Director of the Centre of Hope, the gift was a blessing, but perhaps what was more exciting was the example of two Salvation Army units working together for one common goal.

“This certainly lines up with what Commissioners Brian and Rosalie Peddle are always emphasizing about integrated approach (among The Salvation Army),” he says. “This is the proof, this is what it’s all about. God bless the Yarmouth Corps and all that they’re doing.”