Lismore's first 7-Eleven officially opened this morning in South Lismore and there were a lot of happy people entering and leaving with the famous Krispy Kreme donuts. The Salvos were also happy at the opening because of the food rescue partnership they have in place with 7-Eleven's all of the country.

Just before the cutting of the ribbon, Mayor Steve Krieg praised 7-Eleven for investing in Lismore.

"I am really, really grateful to the whole team at 7-Eleven for believing in this, for believing in our development, believing in our growth and believing in the future prosperity of what our city is going to be, and that is the best Regional Center in Australia."

"I've said it many times publicly, I believe it, and everything that I do works towards making that goal a reality. Having multinationals like 7-Eleven believing the same just makes it get to that point a little bit quicker."

"17 people are employed in this 7-Eleven, so I'd encourage everyone in Lismore, but not only in Lismore in the whole region, to come and support this new enterprise and support local. Keep local people in local jobs."

One of those 17 jobs is new manager Chantelle Keehn.

(Chantelle (middle) with two of the 17 staff that will be working at the new 7-Eleven in South Lismore)

"I'm very, very excited," Chantelle said, "There's been a lot of training in the last two weeks and the staff will be getting training over the next couple of months, so that we will thrive as a team and give out the best customer service that we can."

Captain Philip Sutcliffe from the Northern Rivers Salvos is excited about the food rescue partnership with 7-Eleven and that it will now benefit those in need in Lismore and the Northern Rivers.

"In Australia, we have a terrible food waste problem. It's a great partnership between 7-Eleven and The Salvos to make sure that as much food as possible can be rescued. If it's coming close to its best-before date, or end of shelf life or what they can't actually sell, we can absolutely repurpose that and give it away in our local food pantry and other locations to make sure that the edible food doesn't end up in the tip."

Those readers who use the services of The Salvos will be happy to know that may involve the Krispy Kreme's as well.

"Absolutely. Krispy Kreme's, a lot of products on the shelves and even the special kind of products like spicy twisties and things like that, that if they don't sell in the store, they'll pass them on to us that we can give away to members in our community who might not be able to afford it."