Helping the Salvation Army

My sister-in-law has been blessed to be a stay at home mother - though lately there is not much staying at home going on. Below you will find her note about her experience working at the Salvation Army last week - thought I'd pass it along today as we commemorate the American worker.... Help in any way you can.

After spending 10 hours at Salvation Army today, I can give you more specifics on how people can help. We processed about 1500-2000 people through the center today, and this is the tip of the ice berg, as many are just now leaving New Orleans and will arrive this week. We assembled 500 boxes of food today. The amazing thing was we ran out of boxes at 3 p.m., and just like the Biblical story of the loaves and fishes, God kept providing as we redistributed items to free up boxes, and we had 30 extra boxes assembled to begin with in the morning!
Clothing - take to the nearest thrift store (Salvation Army store is easiest, but any thrift store will do, as they are all joining in this effort) - tell them it's for hurricane relief, and it will be kept separate from the clothes that are for sale. When disaster victims come to Sal. Army, they are then given vouchers to take to the thrift stores to get free clothing.
Volunteers - will be needed for weeks and weeks to come. Even if people can only give a couple of hours at a time, the help is desperately needed. Volunteer hours are 7 days a week, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. We have jobs for people who like to stand still and organize, those who like to run around and distribute things, those who like to handle phone calls, etc. Working alongside all of the volunteers will bless your socks off, and taking time to eat lunch with disaster victims will put the magnitude of the devastation in perspective - you can't come away from this experience without being a changed person.
Items needed: Even though the tables of food were overflowing this morning, we had several empty tables by the end of the day. Below is a list of what we seem to run out of the most:
CAN OPENERS!!!!! (Dollar Tree has them) powdered milk/evaporated milk
SCHOOL SUPPLIES/BACKPACKS (many kids start school immediately)
canned carrots, potatoes, beets, mixed veggies, spinach, sweet potatoes canned beans - pinto, chili, blackeye peas, lima, northern
CHILI canned meat
PASTA & SAUCE (NO mac & cheese - Kroger donated oodles of boxes)
CEREAL baby spoons (Wal-Mart has 16 plastic ones for $2.50) juices rice (no huge bags please) LAUNDRY DETERGENT (regular sized boxes - not huge ones)
CLEANING SUPPLIES (again, not huge ones) 12-16 oz.
COFFEE (the freeze dried blocks or single serve packs) medium sized corrugated boxes
Those are the biggies - any and all help is so appreciated. Many other items (baby supplies, green beans, corn, ravioli - are pouring in at a steady pace, so those needs aren't as urgent as the aforementioned ones).
Working alongside the Salvation Army employees has been such a privilege - they are so gifted at getting people through stressful times like these. If you know of any people you can network with by sending this information along (food co-ops, churches, scout troops, homeowners' associations), please feel free.