MINNEAPOLIS — The Salvation Army has wasted little time cashing this donation-bucket check.

Salvation Army officials in Minnesota and North Dakota said a couple dropped a $500,000 check into a red kettle Saturday outside a Cub Foods in suburban Minneapolis.

Spokeswoman Annette Bauer said it’s the biggest check ever in the Minneapolis area and likely the biggest ever in the two states.

Bauer said the couple has a history of donations and prefers to remain anonymous. She said they alerted Salvation Army officials that the check was coming and asked them to open the kettle and remove the check before volunteers who count donations could see their names.

Bauer called it “an astonishing gift” at a time when the division was running about a half-million dollars behind the same point last year.