Only 15 people at a time could eat lunch in the small Salvation Army room that served as a dining hall and chapel. The other 15 or so who showed up for the free daily lunches had to wait their turn.
But all of that is about to change now as the Glen Burnie Salvation Army prepares to move its headquarters a half-mile east from its old spot at 7483 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. to 7606-7608 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd., doubling its space from 2,000 square feet to 4,000.
The doors at the new location, a few blocks down from Glen Burnie High School, will open Jan. 3. The group will remain near the No. 17 bus line that runs from Pasadena to Baltimore.
The organization has signed a two-year lease for the new space in the Glen Plaza Shopping Center. High rent and the scarcity of building lots, particularly in downtown Glen Burnie, have kept the group from its dream of buying a permanent home, said Capt. Diane Johnson, 42, commander of the Glen Burnie Salvation Army.
But it will happen one day, said Ms. Johnson, who came to the Glen Burnie office in June. She grew up attending Salvation Army sermons in Little Rock, Ark., her hometown. At 19, she entered the Army's two-year college in Atlanta, Ga., and ever since has been working for the organization throughout the country.
For now, Ms. Johnson is happy the Salvation Army will have extra space and lower rent.
The current location has no storage space. Bags of bread sit on the floor in the hallway outside the small pantry, which is filled with canned goods. The Salvation Army makes food baskets for the holidays and gives out food year-round from the pantry. Most of the goods come from private donations or the Maryland Food Bank.
The organization used to give away old clothing, furniture and other items at a rent-free space next door. People could go there and get what they needed. The program ended when the landlord took the space back.
Clothing is still accepted. The items are sent to one of the Salvation Army's nearby thrift shops. Prices are low, but nothing is free.
With the extra space at Glen Plaza Shopping Center, the Salvation Army might start giving out clothes again, said Melanie Thompson, office manager at the Salvation Army for 5 1/2 years.
"That was really, really a great need to the public and a lot of our clients miss that," she said.
Ms. Johnson said she also wants to again offer homeless men a place to sleep during the winter.
"We did it last year," Ms. Johnson said of the winter shelter program. "But it was hard because our building is so little."
The Salvation Army helped found the 3-year-old shelter program, which runs from mid-November to mid-April. About two dozen North County churches open their doors as part of the program. Ms. Johnson, an ordained minister in the Christian organization who delivers sermons on Sundays, said she would like to establish a permanent shelter.
The money the Glen Burnie Salvation Army takes in from its kettle drives in North County accounts for a large part of the group's funds. The drives start the day after Thanksgiving and continue until Christmas Eve. The organization took in $55,000 last year.
Donations this year are running ahead of last year's pace, and Ms. Johnson is optimistic the Army will raise perhaps $65,000.
Private donations account for 80 percent of the Salvation Army's $200,000 yearly budget, Ms. Thompson said.
The rest comes from the United Way and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.