The Northern Rivers Salvation Army launched its brand-new Disaster Services Catering Vehicles at its Goonellabah headquarters yesterday.

Captain Philip Sutcliffe explained that The Salvos started helping the Lismore and Northern Rivers communities in 1891. So, they are celebrating 133 years in 2024.

"We've been standing alongside the community through all the highs and lows. Over the last 80 years, we've also been providing catering support in emergencies and disasters. Since November 2016, the Woolworths group has been our national partner in helping us deliver our emergency support when the community needs it most."

February 2022 was when Lismore certainly needed support.

Sunday, 27th of February 2022, was when Captain (Capt) Sutcliffe felt the community would need help as the flood situation worsened each hour. He was the first person of all the charity organisations on-site at SCU and quickly realised the kitchens would be out of action due to renovations and The Salvos local fleet of vehicles had been decommissioned.

A quick phone call to the Grafton office ended with the emergency vehicle catering truck being driven to Lismore. It arrived as they were putting up the road closed signs, which meant our roads were cut off for the next couple of days.

On Monday, February 28, Capt Sutcliffe rang his Woolworths contacts well before opening time and organised to buy all the food they would need for that day.

"At about 6:30am, we started cooking at the university and served over 3,500 meals to evacuees on that very first day out of a truck that's designed to do 250 per sitting. It was a very, very long day."

"We continued to serve on-site for the next 21 days, serving over 21,000 meals in total, along with refreshments and drinks. We had one-week off-sight from the university before returning again for the second major flood."

Capt Sutcliffe acknowledged a number of businesses that helped The Salvos at that time, such as Woolworths, Southern Cross University, Norco, the Casino Food Co-op, Beach & Bush Distributors and One Fine Kitchen.

For the last two and a half years, The Salvos has continued to provide practical and financial help to those who need it as they rebuild their lives.

In the Northern Rivers alone, the Salvation Army has distributed over $10 million to 11,100 individuals, making a genuine positive impact on these community members' lives as they recover and rebuild.

"Since the floods we've worked tirelessly to get our community equipped with the resources it needs to respond to future disasters and emergencies. We live in a world where we know that we will have another flood, we will have more bushfires, we will have other events, and we wanted to make sure we had the best equipment available.

That equipment includes a full walk-in cool room, a small catering trailer, and the flagship of the Northern Rivers fleet of emergency catering equipment, a completely self-sufficient truck.

"This is a full commercial kitchen on wheels built locally at Food Trailer Kings in South Murwillumbah. It was great that the money from Woolworths was able to be invested back here in the Northern Rivers.

"This setup allows us to be completely self-sufficient and roll up to any disaster and be ready to go in minutes. It has generation water storage, wastewater storage, fridges, freezers, gas ovens and the work.

"We are so excited to be able to establish a comprehensive emergency services fleet here in the Northern Rivers, and we will be here to serve the community in many ways in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.

"This is a great blessing for us. We are so thankful to Woolworths and the rest of the wider Salvation Army for allowing this money to come back into this region. And it is a great blessing for us not to just serve in disasters, but also community events and functions as well. We will be present in a lot more spaces now because we can come and cater for these events and functions.

(The new walk-in cool room trailer)

(The new small catering trailer)

Capt Sutcliffe thanked Woolies a lot during his opening speech, but that is because the company has given $12 million to The Salvos in the past five years. In that time, The Salvos has provided over 600,000 meals, 350,000 refreshments over 2,680 disasters allowing them to purchase over 200 pieces of equipment that are used regularly.

With the south-east of Australia on La Niña Watch this spring and summer, the timing could not have been better to receive the three pieces of catering equipment. Better to be prepared.

Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said, "They (Capt Philip Sutcliffe and his wife Donna) say they are blessed to be in this community; I say we are blessed to have them here. Thank you for everything that you have done and that we know you will continue to do."

"Having this equipment will really make a big difference because I saw what you did with nothing, and I know what you'll be able to do with all of this."

Ms Saffin was asked for the next piece of funding for The Salvos now that they have this wonderful new equipment. And that is a shed to keep the equipment not only dry but safe.

That conversation started over lunch cooked by the Salvation Army Team.