Our Volunteers
Our Medical Transport Volunteers
We have a team of around 30 drivers who are willing to take elderly and less mobile people to hospital and medical appointments. They have all undertaken a DBS check (at no cost to the driver). They use their own vehicle and reimbursement of all mileage costs is paid to the driver in cash directly from the client. Working with the team of co-ordinators, trips are offered to the drivers and they can decide if they are available or not so they are completely in charge of their own time.
Our Telephone Co-ordinators - Volunteers
Our co-ordinators work on a rota basis to receive telephone requests for transport. They then log the requests in the diary, organise the driver from our pool of drivers and co-ordinate collection times. The volume of daily calls can vary but is not generally too onerous. Callers are asked to leave a message if the phone cannot be answered straight away so Co-ordinators can fit this in with their other daily tasks and routines and they can pick up messages when it is convenient. We currently have 5 Co-ordinators and are looking for more people. The current time commitment is around 2 weeks in every 12 weeks; this will be reduced when we recruit more volunteers.
Our Lunch Club Volunteers
We have four teams working on a rota basis - so they only work one week in four - often less due to bank holidays.
The Cooks - Each team has one cook who is responsible for setting the menu and purchasing the food - the cost is reimbursed. The cook works with the team of helpers to prepare and serve the meals. We usually have around 30 members each week.
The Helpers - work with the cook to prepare and serve the meals e.g. peeling vegetables, washing up etc. They also ensure every member has a cup or tea or coffee, and biscuits before the meal is ready to be serves.
Quote from one helper: I have been helping in the kitchen for around three years now. I find our members fascinating to talk to - they all have so many different life stories and I know that they all really appreciate coming to the Lunch Club. It really is a worthwhile thing to do.
