Salvation Army prepares portable kitchen for Florida, how you can help

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The Salvation Army in El Paso has a portable kitchen unit on standby ready to be sent to areas hit by hurricane Ian. 

The unit is equipped to feed 500 to 1,500 people a day and the Salvation Army has several personnel trained for serving in natural disasters that would assist the local efforts in Florida, explained Joanna Estrada, public relations manager of The Salvation Army in El Paso.  

Last time this unit was taken out of El Paso to assist a natural disaster was in 2017 for hurricane Harvey that hit Texas and Louisiana. 

“We don’t know when it’s an out of state disaster whether we’d be called on so we just have to be ready,” said Estrada.

Estrada explained the best way El Paso can assist is with this unit and man-power. 

“We would take a team of 2 to 3 people who are already trained to serve in an emergency disaster, and our service would mostly be preparing and serving meals, serving drinks and just preparing and serving local efforts that are already going on,” she said.

As of now, the Salvation Army is not accepting physical donations for hurricane Ian relief for a multitude of reasons. 

Estrada explained they do not have enough storage at the moment to place the donations and those donations take time to reach Florida from El Paso, which is logistically ineffective and costly. 

“Right now monetary donations are the ones that can be allocated quickly and be used in the most efficient way possible,” said Estrada.

She advised that the best way to help is by making monetary donations on The Salvation Army’s website. 

For local and breaking news, sports, weather alerts, video and more, download the FREE KTSM 9 News App from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store