Volunteers’ Week 2022 - a Big thank you!
It’s National Volunteer Week! A time to say thank you to volunteers across the UK and a time for us to celebrate our own volunteers for their generosity and time here at Big Help!
Volunteering often provides important help to worthwhile causes and offers people the chance to give back and make a difference in people’s lives and it really does make a difference. Last month we carried out a food collection at ASDA in Huyton with employees from Big Help, Amazon, Barclays, BNI Networking, Citrus and Real Five. Our thirty volunteers collected four tons of food and £789.60 in cash over three days!
Toni Bell, our food operations manager, shared some light on how her volunteers spend their time at the food warehouse. She says “Most of the volunteers are usually here four days a week, they go above and beyond to ensure food parcels are ready for those in need. You can really tell when they aren’t here, especially Eileen, Ray & Nick who all volunteer on a weekly basis. They make a really big difference to our team.”
Volunteers at our food warehouse sort through and organise donations which come in from schools, churches and shops. Volunteers also carry out food picks to ensure our food banks are topped up and create food parcels ready to be delivered. We also have a number of volunteers who run our Food Banks and Food Clubs who make sure food parcels are ready to collect and assist people who are doing a personal shop, as well as offering support and guidance to other Big Help services where needed.
Our Community Shops are also a great place to volunteer, we have around 18 volunteers across the Liverpool region who all do various roles from sorting through clothes/books/CD’s, serving customers, pricing and tagging items, creating shop displays and interacting with shoppers. All money from donated and sold items go back into our community to help those in need. We asked Stephen Dyer who works in our Prescot shop why he started volunteering with Big Help, he said, “two reasons, one because I had lots of spare time and two because I enjoy working for a good cause. It’s an extremely good charity that helps people in need. I get a few good bargains too.”
We spoke to some of our lovely volunteers at Big Help and asked why they volunteer and how it has impacted them personally. Christine Seddon is a volunteer for Baby Basics, a team who create Moses Baskets of new-born essentials for vulnerable mums-to-be. She said “I retired after 48 years in the NHS and wanted to do some voluntary work, I applied to work in the Food Bank but they needed someone in Baby Basics, I have been a volunteer now for over a year and a half and I love it! It’s nice knowing the baskets I have assembled are going to be used by someone who generally needs them, I feel honoured to have had some input in helping those who have received a basket.”
Volunteering is not only a great way of helping others, it’s also a great way to develop new skills and gain experience in a variety of industries which may also present job opportunities. Our Reception Debi started as a volunteer at our food bank, she said “After meeting the Big Help team in Tesco’s during a food bank collection, I asked if there were any volunteering roles available. After I joined the team at the food bank, I met lots of lovely people who were using the service, I would chat to them by working front of house and help make up food parcels. The need was so great during lockdown, not only for food but to chat to people who often felt isolated by lockdown measures. I wanted to get more involved in the organisation and was put in touch with the COO once the role of Receptionist was needed. As a receptionist I help individuals not only to obtain food but also in lots of other ways such as furniture, welfare rights referrals, debt advice referrals and much more. I love the work I now do and feel I assist individuals if only in a small way.”
Niamh from our Trading team also started as a volunteer in the food department back in February 2021. Her role involved answering the phones to clients who needed support with food, making food parcels up, completing picks for the food clubs/banks and answering general enquiries. In July 2021 Niamh was then offered a full-time admin role working 3 days a week with the food department and 2 days with the Trading team. Our Trading manager, Hayley Williams shared this about Niamh “After a short period, Niamh had the option to go full time for either food or retail and decided that the Trading department was the better fit to expand her capabilities and skills. Niamh has come so far in regard to her technical skills from not knowing how to complete a Word document to now using Excel and the computer every day. She has become a credit to the retail team and to everybody who she works with. She can brighten up anyone's day and no job is ever too challenging for her, she is always happy to help in any way she can. Her confidence has grown massively in the short time that she has been working with us and her determination is unmatched.”
Volunteering has also been shown to improve wellbeing as it’s a great way to increase social skills, confidence and help make new friends! We spoke to Ray, who is one of our volunteers in food, who said “I was a carer for my wife before she died so when she passed away, I was sort of at a loose end and needed to get out of the house and do something. I have been volunteering for Big Help for nearly three years now, I like giving something back, doing my little bit for the community, so this makes me feel like I’m helping and I get to meet a lot of new people as well. It’s given me an incentive to get up and go in the morning”.
We are so proud of everyone who devotes their time to volunteer, whether that is for the Big Help Project, other National charities, organisations, work place or for individual needs. As Catherine Currie from The Drive told us, “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, and everybody needs that little bit of contact.”
We have loved hearing stories of our wonderful volunteers this week and greatly appreciate the work you all put in to help make our project a success. This week is a time to celebrate you and everyone who has made Big Help a big help!