221: Keeping the heat on with Captain Jon Tollerud

Continuing our Warm Hearts, Warm Homes series, today we’re tackling a challenge that affects countless families during these coldest weeks of the year—keeping the heat on. For many of our neighbors, the choice between staying warm and affording other essentials is a harsh reality.

Did you know roughly 11 percent of Americans live in poverty, which is about 36.8 million people, according to the Census Bureau? That means, for a family of four, they are earning at or below $30,000 a year. Many more still find the cost of managing daily life difficult. In fact, a survey conducted by the US Census Bureau in mid-2023 showed over one-third of Americans find it somewhat or very difficult to pay for their usual household expenses.

The Salvation Army is active in every zip code in America to feed, shelter, assist and equip those in need. We know poverty is often the result of, or catalyst for, chronic struggles with hunger, addiction, housing insecurity, mental illness, unemployment and more. And that these interconnected issues often continue year after year, generation after generation.

That’s why we work to meet the needs of the whole person through short- and long-term assistance. Through programs that serve the body, mind and soul, we alleviate the symptoms of poverty, then work to address the root issues that cause it. This holistic approach helps create sustainable change in millions of lives, every single day.

And one of those approaches is assistance with rent, utilities and other vital payments. 

In Fairbanks, Alaska, where winter temperatures can plummet well below zero, The Salvation Army is working to ensure no one has to make the choice between staying in their home and keeping their heat on.

Captain Jon Tollerud, the corps officer or pastor of The Salvation Army in Fairbanks, is here today to share how their utility assistance program is warming homes and hearts, offering not just immediate relief, but long-term solutions for families in need.

And stick around to the end to hear this week’s challenge for you.

Show highlights include:

• What winter is like in Fairbanks, Alaska.  
• How The Salvation Army Fairbanks Corps began offering utility assistance.
• How the program focusing on working with families to create lasting change.
• Capturing the impact of the program.  
• The most challenging aspect of helping families with utility costs.
• How the community has responded to this program.
• Vision for the future of ministry in Fairbanks. 

Listen and subscribe to the Do Gooders Podcast now. Below is a transcript of the episode, edited for readability. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.

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Captain Jon Tollerud: My name is Captain Jon Tollerud, and my wife Captain Rosie and I are the corps officers of the Fairbanks Corps.

Christin Thieme: Can you give us a little picture of what The Salvation Army in Fairbanks is and does?

Captain Jon Tollerud: Sure. So The Salvation Army here in Fairbanks operates a thrift store, our social service office and our corps programs on a weekly basis. We also get the fun task of driving kids to summer camp through Denali National Park, which is a lot of fun. 

Christin Thieme: That does sound fun. So that’s summertime, but right now is winter there in Fairbanks. Can you give us a little bit of an idea, for those of us who aren’t local to Alaska, what is winter like in Fairbanks and especially what is it like for families in the community who might be struggling?

Captain Jon Tollerud: Sure. So winter in Fairbanks can vary. This year we had a very schizophrenic weather system come through. Typically, from November through, right about mid-February, we see negative temperatures, period. It starts in November.

Christin Thieme: Wow.

Captain Jon Tollerud: Your highs are negative 10. And then in December, your highs are negative 20, negative 30. You’ll see negative 40, sometimes even negative 50. And I think on record, we had a negative 68 day in the last 15 years here in Fairbanks.

Christin Thieme: Oh my gosh.

Captain Jon Tollerud: And so right around February we have what’s called the frost break, and that’s where the temperatures get above zero again, right around mid-February.  

Christin Thieme: A reason to celebrate.

Captain Jon Tollerud: Yeah, if you’re someone who’s like, “40 is cold,” we’re looking forward to 40 right now. But this year has changed a lot of the dynamics that we normally deal with. During a typical winter, here in Fairbanks, you see a real desire to keep people in their homes, keep heat in their homes. And so a lot of the community comes together and they do their best to donate to different causes, like The Salvation Army to create an opportunity for people to keep their homes or keep their houses heated. 

And then this year, quite literally, Monday it was negative 20, and Tuesday it was 20 above. So this year it’s been difficult because the weather’s been so different, just from day to day. I mean, I grew up in Colorado where they said, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes.” And “If you don’t like the weather, wait till tomorrow,” has been our thing this year.

So that’s created some problems, because one thing that happens in that change is you go from negative 20, and you adjust your heat so that you’re not getting too high, but that you’re not freezing the pipes. And then all of a sudden it’s 20 above. And you adjust your heat, but then it drops below 20 again and a pipe bursts. And that creates a lot of problems for people. 

And so not only are we seeing extreme temperatures this year, but there’s a lot more repairs that are happening that don’t normally become associated with it until at least mid-February, early March. That’s when everything starts on thaw and all of a sudden, “Hey, there was a pipe that broke, but it’s been frozen for the last three months, so we didn’t know about it.”

Christin Thieme: You mentioned helping people keep their heat on, keep their houses warm in these extreme temperatures. A lot of people might not even know that The Salvation Army offers utility assistance as one aspect of its ministry for communities all across the country. Can you share a little bit about what that looks like?

Captain Jon Tollerud: Sure. So in Alaska, we operate, especially in Fairbanks, we operate with a state-funded grant for basic housing assistance. And our grant is specifically written to help people who are behind in their rent or utility payments. We do help prevent people from losing their heat or their electricity or their home in general. 

And so we’ve been operating that for the last two winters now, here in Fairbanks, that’s when Captain Rosie and I were transferred here. And before that we were familiar with it because we operated it down in Southeast Alaska as well. And so The Salvation Army in Alaska does a lot of this preventative help and assistance.

Christin Thieme: And it’s more than just paying a bill to help someone out. Can you walk us through how you’re helping families can create lasting change as part of this?

Captain Jon Tollerud: Right. So one thing that we try to do, more than anything else, is provide a hand up, as opposed to the normal handout. And that can be difficult because some people are in just a constant state of rolling poverty, that it’s hard for them to ever catch up. I don’t believe the system is fully designed to get people out of poverty. And Christ teaches us that we shouldn’t be relying on anyone. And so part of our program is helping them find their independence as well. 

So the typical conversation is a client will come in and they’ll talk to us and they’ll say, “Hey, I’m facing eviction. I have seven days or 14 days, whatever their notice is, before me and my family are out on the street.” And so we work with them and we try and do our best to find a solution.

We usually try and talk with their landlords or their property managers, and say, “Hey, this client’s in a really dire situation and how can we help?” And we work together to try and find an amount that’ll keep them in their position. And the program requires us that we provide 30 days of occupancy or 30 days of utilities for the person that we pay their bill. And that can be egregious sometimes. We’ve paid bills as high as $6,500 to keep somebody in their home just so they wouldn’t lose it.

And the conversation we have after that is, “Okay, so we’ve got you back to square one, how do we move to square two? And we can help you do that.” We try and do a little bit of casework, a little bit of that hand up, “Let’s sit down, let’s put a budget together. Let’s figure out.” Because I don’t know how often you may scroll on Instagram or Facebook or anything like that, but there’s a lot of ads that say, “You may be paying for Netflix twice.”

And a lot of people don’t realize they are doing that type of thing. And so we try and comb through their budget and find out what they can afford and what they can’t. We live in a day and age where everything is digital, yet having home internet is almost a necessity for working or surviving or even entertaining your children. And so we have to adjust how we see them. 

How do we create a potential for somebody to take a step forward? Instead of taking a step back, or being in the same position they were in, learning how to do groceries. I had a conversation with a client the other day. They had no idea that you could pay for yearly support for Amazon Prime. And that saves you about $25 over the life of it. Which doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, $25 can be the difference between being able to have milk for your family or not.

So we try and find different ways to cut budgets or live in a different lifestyle. Some people, they can’t afford childcare. Childcare is a massive expense for everyone here in Alaska. I’m sure it is across the United States, but here in Alaska especially, there’s very few licensed places. And so you have to work into these things. And we try and help people find the expenses that are necessary and find a way to put some money away for emergencies. And we’ve actually had some great success with some of our clients.

I was actually doing some follow-up with a client yesterday, and she’s not only paid off everything. But she met somebody, and she got engaged, and they’re getting married. They’re going to move in together. She’s got a great job now, as opposed to when she was trying to get help. And it all started with the budgeting and with the understanding that their people. And that they need, not just the financial assistance, they also need emotional or spiritual care in that way too.

Christin Thieme: Yeah, it’s that holistic wraparound approach that makes such a big difference. What’s the most challenging aspect of helping families with utility costs, in particular?

Captain Jon Tollerud: The families. People.

People are always the most difficult part. And it’s not to be in any way jaded or hurt by that, but the reality is it’s very difficult for people to ask for help. And then when people ask for help, it’s very difficult for them to admit that they need help in certain ways. And so our program requires that we look through your bank statement to make sure that you’re not doing anything that’s federally illegal or we can have that conversation about how you’re spending your money to help you save a little bit here and there. And people don’t want to do that.

And so when we say, “Here’s the application, bring back all the documents.” That sometimes is the barrier that people have. And that’s true with all of us. We all have that inherent ego or pride, so to speak. That’s the natural state of who we are. We’re prideful, and that we need to be broken in order for Jesus to change our lives. And sometimes utility assistance is the way that we can get somebody into church and they can meet Jesus. 

And so we try and use every opportunity with these people to show them they can be fixed. And while it’s not me that does the fixing, I can assist along the way.

Christin Thieme: Yeah, like you said, it can be hard to admit that you need help and to accept that help sometimes.

Captain Jon Tollerud: Right.

Christin Thieme: How has the community responded to this program?

Captain Jon Tollerud: We have a long history of providing support in this program specifically. And so it was just about finding the nice middle ground where we could help as many people as possible. But also not be just, “Here’s a check, have a nice day.” But, “Let’s talk about how we can turn you into a more thriving version of yourself. Let’s talk about how your family can feel more confident in everything that’s going on.” And so the community has started to embrace this a little bit more. 

We sit down with providers and we say, “This is our program. This is what we offer.” And we hope that when we get a referral from one of our community partners, they’ve understood they’re sending somebody that qualifies for that program. We find out their programs because if our program doesn’t assist somebody, we can say, “Hey, go talk to this community partner over here. They provide a program that seems like it fits your need a little bit more.”

Christin Thieme: Right. Yeah, it’s nice to have those connections. What’s your vision for this program and for The Salvation Army in Fairbanks looking ahead?

Captain Jon Tollerud: Oh, man. There are so many things in the vision for The Salvation Army in Fairbanks. For the last 20 years, we’ve been trying to complete a building project. And we have a very Alaska-style building. We have a barn that was attached to a double-wide trailer and a built-on garage. And then they enclosed the entire thing. And that’s very Alaska. That’s pretty much how most buildings in Alaska were in the 50s, 60s, 70s. There are no codes, no problems. So there are places in the building that creak just by walking. And we obviously, want to have a little bit of a different idea. 

So we’re in the middle of a building project, trying to get it off the ground and get it working. But our hope is that we can be a greater part of the community with no cost and low cost sports leagues, like basketball, and soccer and volleyball.

We want the potential to be a space where you can have kind of a “mommy and me” center. Where parents who stay at home can get their kids out. Being a parent of a toddler, sometimes just a change of scenery is all you need. And so having that space where there’s plenty of things for the toddlers to do. 

We want to have a gymnasium, like I was saying with the leagues, we want to build a gym, we want to have a nice new chapel that we can encourage people to find God and find the risen Savior in that way. And we have a thrift store in town, and we love our thrift store, we’d like to expand it. 

We have responsibility for quite a few small villages and quite a few other places. Fairbanks is actually one of the few locations where Santa has to go north. The North Pole is actually south of Fairbanks, and we have Santa’s house. And Santa is a big partner with us, so we do a lot of great work with him. But we want to put a thrift store out in North Pole. 

We want to have a couple other thrift store locations in other places. And these are just long-term visions. There’s a lot of processing that needs to happen before we can do those things. But just being a greater part of the community and providing what we call in Alaska, the Interior, more of The Salvation Army’s presence. We’re as far north as we go, and yet there are still places further north than us, places like Utqiagvik or Kotzebue.

Utqiagvik used to be called Barrow. There’s a picture that goes around Facebook every October that says, “Today the sun will set in Barrow, Alaska, and it won’t rise until April.” And that’s further north than us. And we want to be the partner with them. We want them to know that The Salvation Army in Fairbanks is there for them as well and for all these other outlying communities. And so we have a lot of work to do in that regard, but we are trying to just be more for more people, and trying to help as many ways as we can.

Christin Thieme: It sounds like a lot of exciting opportunities coming up. We’ll have to keep an eye on Fairbanks. Why do you personally love this ministry? I mean, we talk to Salvation Army officers who are called to full-time ministry, to being pastors with this organization, but you’ve been out in the field now for a few years. Why do you love it?

Captain Jon Tollerud: Oh, that’s a very multi-layered question. I love it because God has called me to love it. Seeing people at their lowest and seeing them be able to see Jesus, it’s the passion that I have. And I was fortunate to meet my wife who has that very same passion of picking people up. We are going to do whatever God needs of us. And I love it because every day Jesus gives us just enough to go through. 

The life of a Salvation Army officer is not easy. It is, actually what I would say, and I’ve served in the military, I’ve done sales, I’ve done retail, and I’ve done so many things in my life, but there’s no way without Jesus that a Salvation Army officer could function. And so it’s a daily surrender to whatever he asks us to do. And I just love that I can daily surrender and I don’t have to worry about whether I’m capable because he is.

Christin Thieme: One thing that I love so much about The Salvation Army is that it does so many different things, which can make it hard for people to even understand all that it does, and the ways that we are helping people in communities, and introducing them to Jesus, like you said. How could somebody listening who loves this idea of utility support or just the idea of helping keep families and homes warm in the winter, how could somebody get involved in helping efforts like that in Fairbanks or in their own community?

Captain Jon Tollerud: I would say the best thing to do is call your local Salvation Army and call your Salvation Army officer, and say, “Hey, I have a passion for this.” Because it might not be negative 40 in Phoenix, in December, but it’s still cold for the people who live there. So if you want to keep somebody in their homes, if you want to help with that type of ministry, you just call your local Salvation Army officer, and say, “Hey, this is something that God has placed on my heart to be helpful with, and I want to know what you’re doing for it. Or if I can help you start a ministry.” 

Because sometimes those ministries aren’t there. Though we do reach out to the unhoused populations, though we do reach out to those who are in need. Sometimes the need looks different in each community. And sometimes someone else is already taking the lead in some way.

And maybe your Salvation Army officer knows what other partner agencies are there, or maybe it’s been on their heart too. Sometimes we as Salvation Army officers get scared of doing something new, because we feel like it might just be us. And so if you have a passion for something and you call and they have that same passion, they’re like, “Alright, God this is the confirmation that I need to get this program started.” So you never know what catalyst you could be.

If God has laid a passion on your heart, don’t hesitate. Just jump forward and do it.

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