Growth & Grace

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Even better than that was the last time, baby

Music 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back.

Julian Rosado 0:45
Bang. No, football. Did you see the all star game? No, oh, my God, it was good. It was absolutely amazing. You didn't absolutely amazing? I'm blaming it. It was the very first time that they had the best NBA players, the best USA against the world All Star game. Oh, that was different. Yeah, yeah, okay.

Leaha Crawford 1:08
No, I was studying. I was studying. So I did not. I did not get to watch it. But I will say last week's show was cut a little short. So if you are an avid listener and you want to hear Attorney General Ford's interview, yes, transistor type in growth and grace, and you can hear his entire interview, because it was absolutely amazing, because I was listening, and I was like, ah, they cut off the best word, right, right. He is amazing. And he announced he is running for governor. So if you want to hear it, go to transistor. You can hear the whole show, and you can hear our past shows as well. Yeah, so something that sparked your interest, growth and grace with Leah Crawford and Julian Rosado. All right, so today, y'all we have, we have a returning guest and welcome, welcome. Major. This major, right?

Kyle Smith 2:07
Major sounds great. Major. Is it major?

Leaha Crawford 2:09
It is major. It is major. Okay, we have Major Kyle and Michelle in here from the Salvation Army of Southern Nevada. Welcome, Hey, good to be here. Hey, hey, all right, so y'all know that we're taping this early on Thursday, but you'll hear this on Saturday and today. Well, Saturday, you are today you are doing your the food drive, the food drive at Smith's right in partnership with

Michelle Smith 2:36
Scouts of America, the Boy Scouts,

Leaha Crawford 2:40
yes, lost. I'm sorry, the Boy Scouts of America.

Michelle Smith 2:43
Well, it used to be Boy Scouts of America. They changed it so it's Scouts of America, Scouts of America, the Las Vegas Council.

Leaha Crawford 2:49
Yes, okay, so Scouts of America, the Las Vegas council got it. That's in

Leaha Crawford 2:55
short, Boy Scouts. Boy Scouts, right? In short, right, right.

Leaha Crawford 2:59
All right. How long have the Boy Scout Well, I'm sorry, the Scouts of America been doing this in the Las Vegas area.

Michelle Smith 3:07
Well, this is the 38th year that the Salvation Army and the Boy Scouts have joined forces to collect food for our food pantry, for us to help. You know, families come and get food on our pantry days. Oh, wow. Yeah, this is our 38th year,

Leaha Crawford 3:22
38th year, and location, so they are at Smith,

Michelle Smith 3:27
participating Smith. So, you know, Sky Canyon is one of the ones which super site. Oh, my God. So you'll see a bunch of, you know, we're a bunch there. And that's my favorite store, the sky Canyon one. Oh, my God, that is my favorite. Very nice. Have you because you walk and you see the mountains behind? Oh yes, the food is just it just looks better. It's just beautiful. Yeah, so you know when you see the boy scouts out front. So for our

Leaha Crawford 3:52
listeners, what is non perishable?

Michelle Smith 3:55
Rice, pasta, cereal, box, cereal, oats, canned foods, things like that.

Julian Rosado 4:05
No video games, right?

Kyle Smith 4:08
Nutritional. They

Michelle Smith 4:10
don't look really good on a plate,

Julian Rosado 4:12
just young kids like I got some 2k Games I don't play anymore.

Michelle Smith 4:18
Yeah, no, we're taking non perishable This is to fill our pantry, our Henderson food pantry. Can those shelves stocked?

Leaha Crawford 4:24
Keep those shelves not Yeah. Okay, so why is this important? Especially now

Kyle Smith 4:30
I'd say people are really struggling. Okay, you know, the economy is great for some, but it's not great for all. And I like, last month, just the last month I was I monitor the phone calls coming into the one office that I'm we've got several big offices around town, but the one that I'm in, we had 356, people that were desperate for rental assistance. And you know, there were fear of eviction. And you know, it really hurts your heart. We want to be able to help everyone, but we can't. But one of the ways. Can do is making sure people have got food so they can save their money to pay for rent. I mean, it's really got to that point for a lot of families now, a lot of people listening, that's not their situation. But let me tell you, there are plenty of people that are in that place right now where they have to decide rent, food, school supplies, food, rent, you know, utilities, I can't tell you the number of calls we get. It just just keeps coming and coming and coming.

Julian Rosado 5:27
What do you think is the cause?

Kyle Smith 5:30
Gosh, now, that's a very big thing. That's a big question. That's a big question. It is a big question, and we need a great governor to make sure that we get that one solved, and a few other politicians. I don't want to get into politics. But the point is, you know this? You know we were talking before the show a little bit about AI and how it's changing things and and we're in this. I think all of society is in this change right now. And there's, there's some people that are that are doing really well in this change, and others that are struggling something nothing to do with their own self, but it's just because of where they are and the way the world is changing. It's very difficult. I'll tell you right now, one of the things that's really peaked is seniors that are really struggling because they're on a fixed income. Wow, yeah, so that's a big issue.

Leaha Crawford 6:18
So they really can't hear I mean, I can't really transition. I mean, I can't have my costs go up, my income is

Michelle Smith 6:24
fixed, right? That's, that's the hard part. So everything else is going up. They're just staying, you know, the same.

Kyle Smith 6:30
And so, so we can, if someone can come and they can get some food that helps them be able to pay the rent, which is going up, that makes a big difference. And, you know, you might say, Man, that's, that's, that's, how could someone be in that situation? Well, when you're on a fixed income and you're a senior, specifically, that is, that's not an easy situation,

Leaha Crawford 6:47
not an easy situation, not an easy situation. So again, Smith's participating Smiths around Las Vegas,

Michelle Smith 6:56
there'll be, like, 22 sites. I mean, you can donate any of Smith's. You can go to any Smiths, but you'll see troops at about 22 here in the Las Vegas area and in Pahrump and mesquite,

Leaha Crawford 7:08
all right, so non perishable items. You're taking monetary donations as well.

Michelle Smith 7:12
Yeah. I mean, if you can't make it out to Smith's, I mean, that generosity. I mean, we really appreciate it. You know, it's gonna go to our food pantry. So absolutely. Website, Salvation Army, Southern nevada.org,

Kyle Smith 7:23
you know, we always prefer people to go online to give. We will take any sort of donation, don't get me wrong. But if you're going online, it's just, it's just in the system, it's easily, is we can make sure you get a receipt. Everything, just, everything just sort of automatically works that way, seamlessly, seamlessly. And, you know, I mean, if you start giving money to Boy Scout troops, which is wonderful, and they'll do a great job, but then they've got to work out how to get it to us. You know that just it gets it gets complicated, whereas if people give online for something, when we're doing a food drive, it just makes it a lot easier.

Leaha Crawford 7:56
So let me ask you this, because they, I mean, with them donating this, what other programs does the Salvation Army offer? Yeah, especially southern Nevada, okay? Because, I mean, food pantry is one. Yeah, we,

Kyle Smith 8:10
we help 3000 veterans a year through a veterans program in partnership with the VA. And so we would help at any one time, we've got two to 300 families that we're helping get into housing that we're working with. So there's that's going on. We've got vets that have come out of hospital, that are that are homeless, and they just need a place to transition in and so that we can help them get well and then find a place. We've got others that maybe they're in a bad situation, and they've got some rent coming up, but they need somewhere to stay until that place becomes available. So we help, help those. We've got any trafficking program, and what we really do, we've we've revamped that slightly, and what we do is we really push the vocational side. Because, you know, we need to help people transition from one, one life to another, and they got to get the counseling. But if you sit in your head all the time and you've got nothing else to do outside of that, it can become problematic. So we've really, really pushed that. We do have a vocational program where people that have either been homeless and come through our shelters or through our community meal, and they said, I need to get my life back together, they can go to that. We help them get training. We don't just have one particular area that they get trained. We work with all the different organizations that provide training in the city, and we'll send them to different places. But what we do that's unique is that we have got dorm housing while they're going through the training, and then we have some apartments because, you know, especially those that have come from homelessness or have come through our addiction treatment program and they were homeless, this gives them a chance to just settle down, get the resources they need to move on. So what we do on that program is, once they've got a job, they it's their choice. They can either move on, get an apartment and life is good, but if. The they're not feeling like they're earning enough. They can stay with us. They can pay us 1/3 of that income. They have to save 1/3 of that income to go towards rent down payment or to buy a vehicle, and then they live off the other third. And so we teach them budgeting as well help restructure. Yeah. So okay, so we've got all of that stuff going on in town. We also have an arc, which is an adult rehabilitation center, and that really helps people that have got serious addiction problems, and it's amazing the transformation in lives. It's a six month residential program. We have our night shelter so people that are just homeless on the streets and need somewhere to go at night, they can come and stay. We've got several 100 beds there. We also provide a community meal every lunchtime for anyone at all lunch and dinner or just lunch, just lunch, we do lunch. We do dinner for those that are staying with us. Okay, but we've done a, sort of a, you could say a deal, which is really a smart idea with Catholic Charities and the rescue mission. And we, sort of, one does breakfast, we do lunch. Another does dinner. Okay, that way, you know, we're sharing around the low which is a really smart way to do it. So, you know, and we, we have a seniors low income housing program we're actually working on, hopefully putting the shovel in the ground really soon for a family services center out in North Las Vegas. We've got some land out there, and so we've raised, we've raised, we've raised nine and a half million. We just need a million more. And we're so close, and we've got some, some people that we're talking to. So we're really excited about that, but we are. We're going to start building that thing, and hope. We're hoping it'll be done by the end of the year. I think the permits are either done or almost done. So we're really, we're on the we're in the final stages of getting that totally that was a heavy lift. It was. It's been a lot.

Michelle Smith 11:54
And that location will have a pantry, so then we'll have two. So they have two pantry, two pantries, one in North Las Vegas, and one and one in Henderson. But in the interim, what's, what's exciting that we're going to start doing is the pop up pantries. Okay, so what's that? So the pop up pantries are where we have, we'll have boxes, you know, certain amount of boxes that people can come and it's just for us to expand our reach to families, because we have the one pantry right now that's open on Tuesday and Thursdays in Henderson, in Henderson, right from nine to one in the afternoon. Well, I mean, that's in Henderson, yeah, it's in Henderson, right? So you have people in North Las Vegas or, you know, by the university, or something like that. It's just hard to get to do

Leaha Crawford 12:38
so between nine and one when I'm working, because, right, right.

Michelle Smith 12:41
So now we're going to start having pop ups, you know, once every like, I think, the second Friday, I believe. Don't quote me on that, because the date, I mean, but it's once a month, okay, once a month. And then kind of expanding our reach with our canteen truck, you know, maybe going to one of the grocery stores or something like that, and giving them there. So that way we're kind of moving around the city a little bit just sort of try to reach our you

Kyle Smith 13:08
know, yeah, we're just finding that the need is great. And I know there's a lot of different organizations, you know, helping in this, and all, we're all working together, but there are a lot of people in need, you know. I just that is

Kyle Smith 13:22
just like, it's tough.

Kyle Smith 13:25
And I think these pop ups are really important, especially at our different sites, where people, because people phone, and they come to the Salvation Army for help, and we want to be able to make we've got help for them. And let's just be honest, we're really just the conduit of the community, you know? We're like one, like so many other. We're an organization formed by people in the community, for the community, that's what we do. And so together, really, it's a, it's a community effort, you know.

Leaha Crawford 13:51
So let's talk about the Salvation Army, and let's give a brief history, because you're sitting here. So I just want to get a brief history. Okay, where did the Salvation Army start?

Kyle Smith 14:00
Well, it started in 1865 in the East End of London, and our social work began one day, the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, was walking along with his son, and he goes, Dad, do you realize there's a whole lot of homeless people sleeping under the London Bridge? And his dad said, Well, do something. And that's where it all began. Oh, wow, wow. So that's

Leaha Crawford 14:23
just a simple do something. I'm sure he had no idea of the impact, yeah,

Michelle Smith 14:29
what it's grown to and what it's grown to now.

Kyle Smith 14:31
Oh, unbelievable. We're in 137 countries, I think, besides America. So I mean, I actually served with the Salvation Army. I've got an accent, so I'm here. I originally grew up in New Zealand, so obviously, knew a lot about it there, and I've seen the Salvation Army's work in the Pacific Islands, like in Fiji Tonga.

Leaha Crawford 14:53
You mean I can live in Fiji and, oh yeah,

Kyle Smith 14:58
there's even, yeah, even the mic. In Asia, but also, like, I've been a I was before coming here, frankly, I was in Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. So the Salvation Army is all around the world. And what's really unique about the Salvation Army, we tried to find what's the real need in that community. So in Singapore, for instance, there's a wholly differently structured society, but one of their biggest needs is helping seniors. So we had a massive seniors program there as well providing housing and support for seniors. That was a big thing. In memory care, that was a big thing. Then you go to Malaysia, and it's more helping with food, helping trying to help people get jobs. It was a different, you know, sort of on a micro level. Myanmar, frankly, there's a war going on. There's emergency, sort of disaster. There's there's a lot of things happening there. So the Salvation Army just trying to support the people that are there. So Thailand, we were just starting, and there'd been some big floods and helping people. So again, wherever the Salvation Army is, it's like, what does the community need? Community? What can we do together? How can we come together and really make a difference? And that's sort of the philosophy. Now the Salvation Army is also we're a faith based organization. But here's a beautiful thing, you don't have to have any faith to get any help. We're not. We're not. You don't have to get saved to get served.

Leaha Crawford 16:20
I love it. So it's about the people Amen and meeting us where you are exactly we meet you where you are. Yeah? I love it. I love it because it says doing the most good, yeah, that's right, doing the most,

Kyle Smith 16:31
and that's just serving people with love, just showing kindness to people that that changes the world. And we can all do that. We can all do that,

Leaha Crawford 16:38
yeah, every day. Yeah, every day. All right. So do we have, I know we talked about sky Canyon. Do you know any of the other locations? The one

Michelle Smith 16:48
on Hualapai and Tropicana, the one on Flamingo and fort, Apache? Okay, okay. I mean, there were around. Yeah, there's a few in Henderson. We're in 22 Smith 22 Smiths. And there's 38 here in Las Vegas. Okay, so it's only 16 there. Okay, yeah. And I think one of them that's not is the ones that have all the construction,

Leaha Crawford 17:11
construction going on right now. Yeah, not come right now,

Michelle Smith 17:16
but, but the super sites, and then, of course, our Henderson pantry is a super site, so our trucks will be picking up, as you know, throughout the day, and then, you know, taking it over there to the Henderson pantry. So donations can be dropped off there as well. You know, if that's easier for people, I

Leaha Crawford 17:32
love it now in the past, what what impact the this donation? What impact that does it have on the pantry?

Kyle Smith 17:43
It's a big impact. Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, like I said, it's a community, community. We're really a community, an outflowing of the community support. And if the community supports we can provide food to those that are hungry, and we can provide more food to those, to more meat or more people, but if we don't have the food, we can't do it. We do the best we have, best we can with what we have. The more we have, the more good we can do. I mean, yeah,

Michelle Smith 18:10
okay, yep, all right. And Michelle, you said 38 years. It's 38th year. 38th is the 3038 year. Boxes of cereal go a long way, a long way. Go a long way, boxes of cereal, baby food, you know, things like that, that cost money.

Kyle Smith 18:29
I individuals. I want to throw something out there. This is actually very helpful. It may sound strange what I'm about to say, Come on. Okay, pet food, okay, yeah, you know what? There is really, oh yeah. Look, there's a lot of because you're struggling. Okay. Now just think about this. Your dog is the only living thing that has loved you, no matter what, your whole life. And now you've got no money, you're starving, and your dog is sitting there starving, you know, and I you know, some people say, Well, just get rid of the dog. That is like my mother. I said to my mother just recently, I said, Mom, I think you love your dog more than us. That's ridiculous. Buddy, he is your brother.

Leaha Crawford 19:21
Yeah. And what's so interesting, because those people that are animal lovers are animal lovers, yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, I know some people,

Julian Rosado 19:31
yeah, I had a cat. And I told people, yeah, that's my daughter. Like that. She's my blood, right?

Leaha Crawford 19:39
And you're right because they they treat you good no matter what.

Kyle Smith 19:43
Yeah, I want to tell you saying I heard, it's really awesome. Be the person your dog thinks you are.

Leaha Crawford 19:53
Okay so y'all be the person your dog thinks you are. That's really good. All right, so this today, and it's only today, correct? Yes, it's a one day. It's a one day. So it's the 38th scouting for food, in collaboration with the scout America, LV Council and Smith's participating Smiths. So there's Smiths around the valley, and every neighborhood has Smith's. It's almost 2 million people living here now. If everybody just a can of food, that's a huge impact. Yep, yeah, a little goes a long way when you put it all together.

Kyle Smith 20:31
Yeah, 50% Dave, one can. That's a million cans of food. Think about that. Think about amazing. That's amazing. We'd probably be struggling to work out where to store it, but that would great problem.

Leaha Crawford 20:41
Yeah. And I tell people, it's so funny, because that's the conversation I have with my children. You're going to have problems. What type of problems do you want to have? Can I eat? Or where am I going to eat? Yeah, you know, what type of problems do you want to have? But no, that's a good problem to have. And we if we have that problem, I'm sure we'll find a way. Oh, we will. We'll find a place to put it. We will find a place.

Kyle Smith 21:02
I guarantee someone would come forward and say, I've got a warehouse, I've got a place. I just, I just know that, because it's a great community, there's good people here,

Leaha Crawford 21:10
amazing people here. So again today, at participating Smith's around the valley, the Scouts of America will be there? Salvation Army will be there. You'll see us, and you'll see us. You'll see Yep, and we you'll

Michelle Smith 21:26
see me. You'll see you. Yeah, yeah. Sky canyon or the Henderson pantry, I'll be all over. You'll be all over. Oh, yeah, okay, I'm all over. My butterfly,

Leaha Crawford 21:36
like a butterfly, as always. I want to thank you for taking the time to come on the show with us and to talk about the services. But one more time, let's go over the services that that the Salvation Army officers. I don't think people know really, what all we do? Yep.

Kyle Smith 21:51
So there is a free community meal, 35 West Owens at lunch every day for anyone that wants to come.

Michelle Smith 21:58
Okay. Wow. No 131, good food. It's good food.

Kyle Smith 22:01
132 30, yeah, we don't have time to share more about that, but we'll get chef back on. We have an anti trafficking program. We have shelter for homeless individuals. We provide support for families with rental and different things, but we've got very limited and we get a lot of requests, and we just can't meet it all at this stage, and that really breaks our heart. We have a senior center out there in North Las Vegas. We have the arc. So if you've got a family member that's got an addiction problem, there's a six month program. It's no cost, it's no cost, no cost, and it's a beautiful program transforms lives dramatically. We have that going on. We have vocational programs that train people in the different areas that they want to be trained specifically interested so that they'll do that. We, oh, we do youth programs at Christmas. We're out there doing, you know, yes, yeah. So, you know, it just goes on and on. I, what I love about the Salvation Army is you can show up at the Salvation Army, no money, addicted, down on your luck, with nothing but the shirt on your back, and we can literally help you get all the way through to having a job and a place to stay.

Leaha Crawford 23:13
I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Well, thank you again for accepting our invitation to come on the show. Well, thank you for having us. Yeah, yeah. And I guess I will find the Smiths today and go and get some give some cans.

Julian Rosado 23:26
Yeah, yeah, do that, yeah.

Michelle Smith 23:29
Not your video games, not your

Kyle Smith 23:32
video games, but you can. You can sell them online and take the money and

Michelle Smith 23:38
or you can donate to our thrift stores.

Leaha Crawford 23:42
All right, Julian, so what are you gonna do today? That's that. That's your day. Yeah. All right, well, you've been listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, this is Julian Rosado, and we will talk to you next week. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai