Salvation Army mobile kitchens dispatched

ANCHORAGE -- Fairbanks and Mat-Su Salvation Army crews were dispatched to an Alaska Railroad track washout at Hurricane Gulch last weekend after a request-for-assistance call was placed by the Alaska Railroad Corp. The five-person Fairbanks Salvation Army Mobile Kitchen crew arrived at the washout around 9 p.m. Friday evening, bringing hot food and beverages to 45 railroad workers attempting to repair the track.

"This was the first time it was really called out this year," said Salvation Army Major Brian Beveridge, Emergency Disaster Services coordinator. "It was really a positive to see it all fall together so quickly."

The Fairbanks mobile unit was on the road toward Hurricane Gulch, located just south of the northern-most section of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, within a half hour after Beveridge placed the dispatch call. The four-person Mat-Su team was ready by that evening, but on Beveridge's order waited to relieve the Fairbanks team until the next day.

Janet Kincaid was one of the Mat-Su volunteers dispatched to the site. She has been volunteering with the Salvation Army since the late 1980s, and said the Salvation Army has always offered food during times of need.

"[The motto] at the beginning was 'soup, soap and salvation,'" Kincaid said. "Now our motto is 'we care.'"

Kincaid said she was happy to carry on the tradition of food service at the Hurricane Gulch site, and has been excited about the mobile kitchen since it first arrived in the Mat-Su area earlier this year.

"I've always been a disaster, and now I am a certified disaster," joked Kincaid when talking about the disaster relief certification program she went through in order to be part of the mobile kitchen team.

Beveridge said he is proud of the volunteers, like Kincaid, who volunteered their time last weekend.

"Fairbanks worked about 28 and a half hours … the Mat-Su team worked a little over 12 hours," said Beveridge, who called back the Mat-Su team after the washout was repaired Saturday evening. The teams served more than 100 meals to the railroad workers.

"It really makes a tremendous difference when workers have warm food in their bellies," said Pat Flynn, the Alaska Railroad spokesman. "The food was outstanding."

Flynn said he and the company were impressed with the Salvation Army's swift response, along with their willingness to help out in any way they could. Flynn said the Salvation Army is the type of organization that doesn't wait around to be asked for assistance -- they are the type of group that is willing to call and just ask 'how can we help?'