Program to Allow Curbside Salvation Army Donations

Under a pilot program approved Wednesday by the city’s Public Works Commission, west San Fernando Valley residents will be able to donate items to the Salvation Army without walking past their front curb.

By a unanimous vote, the commission backed a one-year test program that will allow up to 10,700 residents in the West Valley to put donations in bags alongside trash cans on street curbs, where they can be collected weekly by the Salvation Army.

The donations, which can include shoes, clothes, small appliances and knickknacks, will be mended and sold at thrift shops with profits going to the Salvation Army.

The program is the first such home-donation effort launched by the Salvation Army. But if it is successful, Salvation Army and city officials say they may expand it to include other parts of the city.

A Salvation Army spokesman said he was happy with the commission’s support and predicted the program would increase donations.

“We are ecstatic because this will bring more stuff to our centers,” said Edward C. Irby, director of operations for the Canoga Park Salvation Army.

Although the specific neighborhoods in the West Valley have yet to be singled out for the program, the effort will begin with about 200 households per day before it is expanded to a maximum of 10,700 residences, Irby said.

“We don’t want to get in over our heads,” he said.

Despite the commission’s approval, some commissioners questioned the program and the $12,000 to $16,000 tab the city will pick up for the cost of the donation bags.

“Should we be spending money this way?” said Commission President Charles E. Dickerson III.

Natanel Isaac, an assistant sanitation engineer, responded by saying the program, if successful, may encourage people to donate clothes and other goods that would otherwise end up in area landfills.

The program is likely to begin in May when the Salvation Army and the city will begin to distribute 32-gallon bags in neighborhoods in the West Valley. The bags will be accompanied with an information brochure explaining the program. Participation in the program is voluntary.

Residents can put the bags out on the curb on the same day of the city’s trash collection.

In addition to clothes, appliances and other household goods, Isaac said the Salvation Army will take pieces of fabric and other textiles, which can be recycled by manufacturers and reused.