Marta Ilić has driven the Tuesday night food relief run for two years. In that time she’s missed exactly one shift — for her own knee surgery — and arranged her own replacement before she told anyone she’d be out.
“I started because a neighbour asked if I had a car and two free hours,” she says. “I stayed because you meet the same families every few weeks, and you actually see it add up. That’s rare, doing volunteer work where you can see the difference so directly.”
Marta says the part she didn’t expect to enjoy was training newer drivers on the route — showing them which loading dock to use at the back of the supermarket, which families prefer a knock at the door versus a text first. “It’s not complicated work. It just needs someone who’ll actually turn up.” Two years and one missed shift later, nobody doubts that she will.