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Innovative canteens spark joyful engagement.
This story is part of Caring’s 2026 print edition, “Joy That Moves,” featuring lives changed through the joy of giving. Read the issue here.
The mood shifts the moment Gresham (Oregon) Corps Officers Captains Caleb and Iliana Montes announce the ice cream truck is open at events.
“It is like a magnet,” Caleb Montes said. “We get this huge rush and people are just lining up and everybody wants to get an ice cream.”
After all, who doesn’t love free ice cream? That’s the thought behind the upcycled Salvation Army canteen scooping up joy in communities around Portland.
It all started when Cascade Divisional Commander Major Jonathan Harvey saw a video featuring a similar outreach in Arizona. When he saw a decommissioned canteen at a Salvation Army service center parking lot, the idea crystalized.
“We made plans to get the vehicle to Divisional Headquarters, prepared the vehicle for deployment in a new way and made it available to the field,” he said.
Throughout The Salvation Army’s history, canteens have been dispatched as mobile feeding units during humanitarian events and disasters, including the Great Depression, World War II, September 11, Hurricane Katrina, the COVID-19 pandemic and more.
“Our canteens are as iconic as the red kettles out there in the community,” said Western Territorial Emergency/Disaster Services (EDS) Deputy Director Nicole Kanne. “If you see one of our Salvation Army disaster canteens, know that it’s filled with food and love.”
While the ice cream truck is no longer on the front lines of The Salvation Army’s EDS responses, its second act positions it as a valuable tool for building connections throughout the community.
Montes has borrowed the ice cream truck to serve up frosty goodness at outreach events, back-to-school giveaways and even an Easter egg hunt. He said advertising the truck on event fliers is sometimes enough to pique curiosity for new faces to attend.
They’ve served up everything from individual ice cream novelties, like drumsticks, to scoops of ice cream from large containers, which Montes said, seem to be the favorite—especially when there are toppings to choose from.
“Outreach therefore comes in many different forms from one-on-one interactions over an ice cream to a financial gift that leads to a child’s ability to attend camp in the summer.”
Major Jonathan Harvey
“We’ve noticed that it’s way more effective than us just handing out ice cream from an ice chest on a table,” he said. “Having the actual ice cream truck and people like seeing it, it just brings so much attention to the truck and to the event.”
Last summer, Walmart Managers from the Portland region spent an afternoon at The Salvation Army’s Camp Kuratli at Trestle Glen in Boring, Oregon. There, the ice cream truck served refreshments during free time.
Following a tour, Harvey said representatives presented The Salvation Army with checks from each store, solidifying their support for the summer camp program.
The ice cream truck also traveled to the headquarters of superstore giant Fred Meyer, a strategic partner, and served ice cream to the employees on a warm Friday afternoon.
“It was an absolute hit with the employees who all expressed their appreciation for the work of The Salvation Army,” Harvey said. “We, in turn, were able to express our appreciation for their support and partnership in serving others.”
The support of Fred Meyer throughout the year—food drives and kettles during the holidays, back-to-school drives and more—is essential to The Salvation Army’s ability to fulfill the mission, Harvey said.
“Outreach, therefore, comes in many different forms from one-on-one interactions over an ice cream to a financial gift that leads to a child’s ability to attend camp in the summer,” he said.
And the imaginative canteens don’t stop there.
The latest? A decommissioned canteen repurposed as the Camp Kuratli Snack Shack, complete with a sticker motif decorative wrap—a design Harvey said will be replicated with actual stickers available at camp for kids to place on their belongings.
The plan: In spring, the canteen will raise summer camp awareness and assist in registration. During the summer, the Snack Shack will serve snacks to campers at Camp Kuratli.
“We are hoping it will serve as another effective tool corps and program leaders can use to reach people and introduce them to The Salvation Army,” he said.
Do Good:
- When disaster strikes, The Salvation Army is already there to provide immediate relief and long-term recovery support. By working together, we can make a significant impact on the lives of those affected by disasters. See more at caringmagazine.org/disaster.
