Sydenham Fresh Food Co-operative
Project Overview
Sydenham Fresh Food Co-op provides an affordable weekly bag of fresh vegetables for local households.
Vegetables are local where possible, or British and in season. Sometimes we buy vegetables from Europe if they are scarce here. There is not much British fruit so we have to buy a lot of that from abroad. Once the produce is delivered volunteers divide it up and pack it into bags which are then picked up by members of the food co-op.
Principal Function of Volunteer
Volunteers will assist our Community Food Officer in the weekly tasks and activities such as publicising the co-op, organising orders, packing bags and researching recipe ideas.
Tasks and Activities
As a volunteer you will carry out some or all of the following activities, depending on your individual capabilities and preferences. This list is only a guide to the types of activities that may be required.
- Taking vegetable bag orders over the phone or face to face.
- Organising and packing vegetable bags
- Recycling cardboard
- Producing publicity leaflets and posters for the Co-op
- Maintaining membership lists of current members
- Informing suppliers via the Community Food Officer of purchase orders for that week (usually a Tuesday)
- Labelling egg boxes
- Helping to produce information/recipe sheets
- Processing Healthy Start vouchers
- Attending Steering Group meetings
- Helping out at community food events like Winter Veg Day, Pumpkin Day or Master Pasta.
Benefits:
As well as being involved in a worthwhile project which helps promote healthy eating and local food volunteers could gain administrative, promotional and organisational skills. There are also opportunities to learn more about fresh food and new recipe ideas.
Skills/Qualifications/Experience sought:
No particular skills or experience are required as full training and support will be provided and volunteers can take on as little or as much as they’d like.
Minimum age:
16 years
Time commitment required:
The main co-op day is on a Thursday when the delivery arrives, the bags are packed and people collect their orders. However volunteers are also needed throughout the week for other tasks.
The amount of time required will depend on the roles and tasks you decide to take on and could be as little as an hour every now and then or much more if you have the time!
Time critical tasks
Tue - 12:00 - collect extra orders & money from children’s centre & text Judy
Wed - Any time - Label egg boxes and sort bags
Thu - 9:30 - receive & check delivery
9:30 – 11:00 - pack bags
11:00 – 12:00 -give out bags, take orders and money for following week
12:00 -clear up, take left over bags/veg to children’s centre and take cardboard to recycling centre
Non time critical weekly tasks:
- Creating Recipe Sheets
- Typing up orders from the previous week onto spreadsheets and doing the finance.
Non time critical One-off tasks
- Publicity for the co-op, printing posters,
- Helping out organising, promoting and on the day at community food events
Training, Reviews & Support
- Registration session with Amy, the Volunteer Programme Manager to provide an overview of Action 21 and what volunteering on our projects involves. Also gives you a chance to ask any questions you may have.
- Project Induction with Judy
- End of probation review session (after 4 weeks or sessions of volunteering; with Amy and/or Judy as appropriate)
- 6 monthly review sessions
Expenses
You can claim back reasonable expenses for travel. How you go about claiming back these costs will be explained in more detail during your induction. If you have the time to volunteer for a full day we’ll even give you a free lunch!
Location
The food co-op packs and gives out the bags from The Sydni Centre every Thursday. Some bags are then transported to The Sydenham Children’s Centre for people to pick up.