As WSJM reported earlier this week, local Salvation Army officials are saying goodbye to housing The Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen on their property due to structural problems with the building. Officials say the good news is that the rest of the services at the Salvation Army will remain unaffected, for now.

Salvation Army Lieutenant Mario Bledsoe is one of the Benton Harbor Corps officers and says it was heartbreaking to ask the Soup Kitchen to leave their facility, but he says parts of the former YMCA building at 233 Michigan Street are in rough shape.

“It’s just not good. It’s crumbling before our eyes, but that’s more so on the Soup Kitchen side. The shelter is in really good shape, but it’s just some of the places in the building (aren’t) working as they used to when we moved into this building over 30 years ago.”

Bledsoe says despite the Soup Kitchen setback, the Salvation Army will continue offering other services from that location, at least for the time being.

“The men’s shelter will still be here. All the social services, youth programs, Christmas assistance will still run out of this building. And because it’s a 100-year-old building, we may eventually have to move from here, from this location. We’re not sure when.”

The Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen organization has until April 30 to find a new place to operate. Earlier this week, Soup Kitchen Board President K.C. Gast said he was working on a couple of leads for relocation, but nothing had yet moved forward. Gast said the Soup Kitchen serves more than 40,000 meals a year to those in need.