Salvation Army sees jump in donations after adopting debit machines

The Salvation Army in Sydney, N.S., is bringing back debit machines for this year's Christmas kettle campaign after introducing them last year on a trial basis.

Major Corey Vincent, pastor in charge of the Sydney Community Church, said they used three machines last year and have added another one to this year's campaign.

"We've been hearing for many years from people, 'I don't carry cash, I don't carry change anymore. We would love to give,' but they walk right by, so we just wanted to give people the option to use debit," he said.

The machines also accept Visa and Mastercard.

Salvation Army spokesperson Linda Leigh said there are 100 debit machines in use countrywide this year, which is up 20 per cent from last year.

Vincent said the machines each cost $30 a month to operate and generated $500 apiece last year in extra donations.

"We made the decision that if they can pay for themselves, we're OK, but we've been noticing that quite a bit of money has been coming in through the debit machines and that will add up quite quickly towards our goal," he said.

This year, the Salvation Army hopes to raise $240,000 in its kettle campaign and Christmas letter appeal. Vincent said money raised from the kettles will support programs throughout the year.

"This is our only source of income for our community programs, such as our food bank," he said. "We are serving people 365 days per year and with the need in the CBRM and poverty rates as high as they are, we need every cent that we can get."

Marie Osborne is a kettle volunteer.

"It's wonderful. You get to meet many people and people are very generous this time of the year, they're very encouraging and very supportive of the Salvation Army," she said.

The debit machines are located at the two Walmart locations in Sydney, the NSLC in Sydney River and the Salvation Army church on Inglis Street.

The kettle campaign wraps up at noon on Christmas Eve.