‘Neighbors helping neighbors’: Volunteers update kitchen at Oakbrook Terrace Salvation Army

As it is in people’s homes, the kitchen at the Oakbrook Terrace Salvation Army is a hub of activity.

Here’s a difference: In 2025, that kitchen helped the corps serve more than 28,000 people throughout DuPage County.

“It was the little kitchen that could,” said Cathleen Himes, resource development director at the Oakbrook Terrace Corps and Community Center, 1 S. 415 Summit Ave.

All that use meant the little kitchen was a little tired. It hadn’t been updated since 1994.

Until March 23, when volunteers from Lombard’s Home Depot services branch, 870 Oak Creek Drive, stepped in.

A renewal project scheduled for completion in early April, after an Easter break for Salvation Army breakfasts and outreach, includes installing commercial-grade acrylic countertops and solid wood cabinetry to replace particle board cabinets.

“That gift will ensure that we’re able to help our neighbors in need and our community for years to come. It’s really going to see us into the future,” Himes said.

The Home Depot Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, and its volunteer squad, Team Depot, helped the Oakbrook Terrace corps before.

About a year and a half ago, the foundation was seeking a nonprofit project, Himes said. Lombard Home Depot volunteers connected with the Salvation Army to renovate its Oakbrook Terrace food pantry.

“Neighbors helping neighbors, and it is a huge blessing to us,” Himes said. “We are able to continue serving because of their generosity and support.”