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Salvation Army bells will start ringing Friday with donations coming in that officials hope will hopefully raise enough money to compensate for the lack of big donations this year.

“It’s early to tell,” Salvation Army Dane County Coordinator Major Paul Moore said. “But I’m not optimistic about the economy.”

Moore said he expects to receive his usual bulk of the annual budget in the holiday season. However, this year has been bleak for usual contributions by big donors.

“Large donors are saying they don’t have the money this year,” Moore said. “It doesn’t look positive at this point.”

Because the mail-in donations have not been as sufficient as hoped, the Salvation Army needs to see an increase in the amount of donations from the red kettles used by its signature bell ringers.

Moore said an increasing number of families have applied for Salvation Army services this year.

Bell ringers are needed in order to help meet the needs of families this year, Moore said, adding they have 90 percent of voluntary shifts still available through the end of December.

According to Moore, there is a 20 percent increase in families who have already applied for services, compared to last year, which may include contributions in food assistance, gifts for children, visits and basic necessities.

Additional applicants are expected to continue to rise after Thanksgiving and into the holiday season.

“If you have items to donate, now is the time,” Moore said.

Food service, which formally provided families with food baskets, now offers a gift card to give freedom to the family in choosing their desired holiday meal to accommodate differing cultural celebrations.

“Between giving gifts, visiting seniors and other services, over 10,000 people will receive some sort of assistance,” Moore said.

Some UW students got an early start to helping kindle the holiday spirit by taking part in Red and White Hunger Fight.

A total of eight tons of food was collected from Homecoming weekend to Nov. 12 when over 130 people helped load the truck at Ogg Hall to deliver the food to Community Action Coalition for distribution.

“It was an [enormous] turnout,” Red and White Hunger Fight organizer Michele Dalton said. “Much bigger than I expected.”

Dalton organized the collections drive, having experience orchestrating a similar event that took place in her Chicago high school.

“I felt that our first year was much more successful than I had expected,” Dalton said.

Food was also collected through a contributing drive called Tagging and Bagging, where Dalton — along with her women’s soccer teammates — went door to door to drop off bags for people to fill with canned good and monetary donations, which they picked up the following week.

“You could tell that some people couldn’t donate because of the economy,” Dalton said.

Salvation Army volunteers can sign up online at www.ringbells.org or call (608) 250-2235 to reserve a two-hour shift. For all other Salvation Army volunteer opportunities, contact Deb Crye at (608) 250-2218.