Meet our Food Club volunteer - Catherine Currie
As part of Volunteers’ Week 2022, we’re highlighting some of the volunteers who work tirelessly across our organisation to help those in crisis. We spoke with some of our volunteers and asked them some questions about why they choose to volunteer, and the impact it has had on them.
We spoke with Catherine Currie, who is Lead Volunteer at The Drive and helps to run Big Help Food Clubs:
How long have you been volunteering for BHP?
I have been volunteering for nearly 3 years, I used to help out in the warehouse at Link Road, but originally I started volunteering to help with deliveries to the foodbanks.
Why did you decide to volunteer?
I have always volunteered most of my life, but since moving into Huyton; I decided to volunteer at the Big Help, after actually accessing their services first and becoming a Food club member. Since then, I’ve volunteered my time with The Drive and Big Help Project.
Do you have a favourite memory/memory that has stayed with you since you began volunteering?
The first time I volunteered, was greeted by Kim, one of the oldest volunteers, and she was amazing and left an impression on me. Everybody needs community and everybody needs help in some way shape or form, we are all capable of giving a couple of hours here and there, and if you can’t give a couple of hours there’s other ways you can help. Being out and talking to people is what it is all about, everybody needs that little bit of contact.
How has volunteering impacted you?
It has helped not only my mental health, but Big Help Project helped me with my financial situation and have helped me overcome crisis – a member of staff encouraged me to speak with Big Help advice teams and Bridie was a big help. I have been working with The Drive out of St Luke’s church while The Drive undergoes a refurb, and the cross-community partnerships we have formed since being there have been incredible. It’s so important for communities to come together, everybody needs help at some point. We can’t all afford to call in the same help, but we all need to be told we are not alone. No matter how dark and bad things get, there is always someone there to be a shoulder to lean on. The interaction and being able to speak with another person is extremely important.
We refused to shut during lockdown, at lot of us were in ill health but we didn’t want to shut. A little bit of help goes a long way. Everybody at Food club knows each other, it’s like one big family – and when one person doesn’t come for a week, we are always asking “are they okay?” but that’s just what it’s like, we are a community.
Our oldest member is actually 100 years old in July, she came in one day last year after walking down from her home and asked “how do I become a member?” this year we even got a photo of her and our youngest member – it’s a wonderful picture!
