Behind the scenes in our Army of Hope

Eighty-year-old Patricia has been volunteering with The Salvation Army’s Emergency Services for more than 15 years, yet you’ll never see her at the frontline handing out meals or refreshments. Patricia is one of the many behind-the-scenes workers in our Army of Hope.

“I don’t go, I just prepare everything,” she says as she describes the assembly line of meal preparation that swings into action when her SAES crew is called into action. “We make up the sandwiches. I butter the bread and we go down and people put different fillings on them and I put them into a plastic bag with two pieces of fruit and a drink.”

Patricia has helped out behind the scenes of floods, fires and missing-persons searches, diligently preparing meals and refreshments that are distributed to emergency services personnel and people who are affected. She says she’ll keep on volunteering as long as she can because “so many people need help.”

Caption: 80-years-young Patricia Mitchell loves her behind-the-scenes work for the SAES.

Photo: Adam Hollingworth