Many Salvationists are familiar with the iconic Salvation Army canteens. While to many they may just appear to be typical food trucks with some Salvation Army shields and branding, they are actually powerful ministry tools often found in use preparing and serving hot meals at disaster relief sites, delivering food to unhoused people, and even at community events. But there are still new ways to use our canteens being devised, including one idea that could perhaps be implemented at your corps this summer.

It started in the Western Territory’s Cascade Division (which includes Oregon and southern Idaho) when divisional commander Major Jonathan Harvey and his team happened upon a video clip from another church in Arizona using an ice cream truck for community outreach. They noticed that the church’s truck looked a lot like a Salvation Army canteen, and inspiration struck. All it would take was an out-of-use canteen to be rewrapped, decorated and outfitted with the proper freezer equipment, and they could do the same thing. It wasn’t long before the divisional headquarters team found a decommissioned canteen waiting to be used in a parking lot in Idaho. 

The refreshed canteen was deployed at the end of summer 2024. The truck was brought to different corps’ outreach events such as backpack giveaways at the start of the school season. It’s only a two-person operation, with one handing out the treats and another on the outside engaging people in conversation. So far, the ministry has gone off without a hitch.

“Everyone loves ice cream,” said Major Harvey. “[The truck] is a way to connect with people and to do so in a visitor-friendly kind of way, a way that’s not confrontational. It’s just ice cream. It’s a way to say ‘hi’ to people.”

Between the canteen’s appealing new look and the prospect of free ice cream, Major Harvey says the community response has been fantastic. But he stresses that giving away free frozen treats to clients and neighbors isn’t the purpose of the truck, it’s just a starting point. “The goal is to begin conversations, to make an invitation to be a part of a program, to be a part of church, to invite people to know Christ,” says Major Harvey. He says that it’s just one way that people can “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

This new idea, much like many Salvation Army programs, harkens back to the well-known saying coined by The Salvation Army’s founder, William Booth, “soup, soap and salvation”—albeit a refreshed, summertime take on the concept. The phrase means that people need their physical needs met before their spiritual needs can be attended to. And while frozen desserts may not be a need (though some might argue otherwise), Major Harvey’s ice cream truck initiative encapsulates that idea of meeting people where they’re at before introducing them to Jesus.  “It really is that simple,” Major Harvey says. “Kids love it, and it attracts families.”

It doesn’t take much to imagine all the potential applications of a Salvation Army ice cream truck. Beyond corps facilities, Major Harvey suggests that the canteen could be taken to local sports events and farmers’ markets or flea markets, to start. This will be the first year that the Cascade Division can use the ice cream canteen throughout the entire summer. Corps across the division will be able to request the truck to be brought to their locations and events through an online form. Hopefully it will be a very busy summer for the team. 

Major Harvey anticipates that corps in bigger cities, such as Portland, OR, will take the canteen out into different neighborhoods. “That’s my real dream,” he says. “I would love to see us getting out into [the] community, connecting with people there.”

Some of The Salvation Army’s best local programs have started because soldiers, officers or employees have thought to use resources in new, innovative ways. And these deceptively simple ideas, the ones that make you think “How has no one done this before?” are the best because they don’t take much to implement on a larger scale. Maybe someday soon we’ll see more “ice cream canteens” across the country, satisfying sweet tooths and souls alike.