Orange’s Salvo Store is crying out for help to sort donations, say longtime volunteers.

Nerida Noon and Laureen Harvey have been regular volunteers at the local Salvos store for about five years. But since the store was forced to relocate to a temporary pop-up last November, due to a roof in need of repair, the pair say volunteer numbers have dropped sharply.

“I go on Mondays and Tuesdays, and so there would be about five of us there on a Monday, same on Tuesday, but now probably two of us, maybe three, if you’re lucky,” Laureen said.

“And we could probably do with another six or seven volunteers because a lot of stuff comes in!

"We’ve got donations coming out the door,” Nerida added. “It is massive and we just can’t process it all.”

When Orange City Life stopped by last week, there were indeed piles of bags and many loaded trolleys of donations waiting to be sorted.

“We get a lot of bric-a-brac... The toy room, it’s just chockers. The book room is the same, because we can’t process it quick enough to get it out,” Laureen said.

The good news is that the Salvo store will be moving back into the old Strand Theatre on the corner of Summer and Peisley Street within weeks, but wherever they are located, they still need volunteers to keep operating.

“You can come in and spend all day or I go from 9am till 12pm,” Nerida said.

“I’m 9am to 2pm, two days a week and sometimes I like going on a Saturday if I have nothing to do,” Laureen said.

“I’m not one to sit at home and do nothing when you can be down there and have chat.

"Yeah, I think a lot of the volunteers, they go there for company. We’ve all become good friends,” Nerida said.

“So many people sit at home and say, ‘Oh I’ve got nothing to do!’ Well, come down!”

The Orange Salvos Pop-Up Shop is located at 123-125 Peisley Street and open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.