By Shelby Brooks
The Salvation Army Pakenham is barely keeping up with the demand for food and assistance during the sixth Covid-19 lockdown.
Captain Katie Ryan said the Bald Hill Road organisation was always seeking any type of food donations.
“We’ll take anything at this point,” she said.
“It goes out the door as soon as it comes in.
“The demand is growing here- there are many people affected by the lockdowns.”
The Salvation Army can operate during lockdowns because they are deemed as an essential service, albeit with Covid-safe measures in place.
“We’re here if anyone needs assistance or if anyone feels they need support in any way,” Capt. Ryan said.
“We want people to be their best selves during Covid.
“They can come for a chat outside on a bench whenever they need.”
The help of the Pakenham Salvation Army has recently gone beyond the immediate area, helping out the Leongatha branch recently with excess food donations through its Doorways program.
“Our volunteer team in Pakenham were sources food for our Doorways program and they ended up with quite a lot of extra,” Capt. Ryan said.
“So, we reached out to the Leongatha branch who also have a Doorways program to help them out.”
Capt. Ryan said the Leongatha team were able to reach more spaces than they usually had in the past due to the donation from Pakenham.
“Leongatha were able to find whole new areas to assist because they didn’t have to resources in the past to reach these spaces,” she said.
With the extra fruit, vegetables and non-perishables that were delivered to Pakenham this week, they were also able to distribute goods to Salvation Armies in Berwick, Wonthaggi, Moe and Morwell as well as teh Remar Church Pakenham, Assembly of God Pakenham, ADRA Nunawadding and Pakenham, Bunyip and Garfield Community Centres and Casey North CISS.
