Kitchen Volunteer – Cook to help with community lunches at Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project

What does the opportunity involve doing?

BUCFP is looking for volunteers that can help us run our community kitchen during school half-terms and summer school holidays.

The kitchen volunteers cook a daily vegan meal to be ready for 1:00 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Volunteers can apply to either for head cook and for assistant role.

What induction, training and support is offered?

Volunteers are offered support from the Food Coordinator on a weekly basis whilst they are on shift cooking. The Food Coordinator will offer regular supervision sessions if required, and will keep notes on file of any concerns, training or further support required by the volunteer.

Volunteers will be offered advice on recipes and creative cooking using stock rotation of fresh produce to reduce food waste.

The Food Coordinator will support and encourage volunteers to create tasty food by playing to their strengths, and where appropriate will buy in specific ingredients (eg herbs/spices) to enable the volunteer to produce recipes they love. NB - there are cost restrictions to this!

All volunteers are offered Food Safety training to level 2 and get travel expenses reimbursed (up to £5), and (of course) they get a free meal (!).

What skills or qualities are needed?

Volunteers must have basic familiarity with food preparation and cookery.
Any previous experience of cooking is an advantage; especially vegan cookery or cooking for large numbers of people. An understanding of veganism is an advantage.
Innovative cooking is key since we generally cook according to what food is in season/in stock/donated, rather than buying for recipes.
An interest in nutrition is an advantage.
Once confident enough in overseeing meal quality themselves, cooks can then give less experienced people guidance in coming up with and using their own ideas.