VOLUNTEER

opportunities

Foodbank cover

Sometimes our foodbank teams need cover for holidays and illness.  This happens at almost all of our centres from time to time – sometimes we have lots of notice, and sometimes it can happen on the day.  If you would be interested in providing cover on an ad-hoc basis to different foodbanks then we’d love to hear from you.  Drop us an email here.

 Transport

Our transport team make sure that all of the donations are collected from supermarkets, schools, churches and workplaces.  They bring the donations to the warehouse for checking and sorting by our warehouse volunteers and then they deliver the completed food parcels to the foodbank centres.  Each team consists of a driver and a buddy, so you don’t necessarily have to be a driver to join this team.  We are particularly looking for some extra help on Thursday mornings.  If you think this opportunity might be for you then drop us an email here. 

Corporate

Over the years, Edinburgh Food Project has been fortunate to have the help of many enthusiastic and committed corporate volunteers. These teams have been essential to our operation and during our peak period, September to February, we rely on their support to manage the increase in donations during harvest and Christmas.  Corporate teams work alongside the regular volunteer team checking, dating and sorting food. The work that they do during that busy period means that we are able to build up our stock to see us through leaner times.  Some organisations also choose to support us by collecting food, helping with fundraising and through match funding throughout the year.  We are grateful to all of the organisations and their staff who choose to support us in this way.

Please email [email protected] for our current group opportunities.

investing in volunteering

Investing In Volunteers is the UK standard for good practice in volunteer management. Edinburgh Food Project is, and always has been, powered by volunteers and we wanted to achieve the standard to show our commitment to and appreciation of our volunteers.  We also wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on our processes and learn from other organisations. In October 2021, after completing and reviewing our self assessment, providing supporting documents and going through hours of interviews we achieved the Investing in Volunteers award.

The assessment reviewed our processes in six quality areas:

  • Vison for volunteering
  • Planning for volunteers
  • Volunteer inclusion
  • Recruiting and welcoming volunteers
  • Supporting volunteers
  • Valuing and developing volunteers

Volunteer Testimonials

“I would just like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to volunteer at the Foodbank over lockdown. It has been great meeting everyone involved with the Foodbank and also getting the opportunity to help those who need it most. Hopefully, see you again soon.”
Matthew
Volunteer
“Thoroughly enjoying volunteering with you all Bethany - the team make it good fun and can I say that it has really helped my self-confidence. I am not sure if I would have applied for work if I hadn't had the volunteering experience with you.”
Melissa
Volunteer