Our guests arrive at our breakfast session straight from a night sleeping out and may be cold, tired, stressed or upset. A warm welcome and somewhere safe to sit and enjoy some hot food and a friendly chat can really make the difference to someone’s day. It is also a great opportunity to tell our guests about all theother help they can get from us later in the day.
The breakfast session is run by a handful of volunteers together with a member of staff, so without the volunteer team, it simply couldn’t happen. Volunteers for this session need to arrive promptly ready to start their roles at 7:00am so that we are ready to start serving our guests at 7:30am.
Volunteers can carry out a variety of tasks and, whilst we will try to accommodate you in whichever role you prefer, you will need to be prepared to do any of the following as required by the session leader:

Simple preparation of hot food and drinks
Serving food and drink to our guests
Safe handling and storage of food
Washing up and cleaning food preparation and eating areas throughout the session
Cleaning the support centre after the session is complete and making sure that it is ready for the next session
Managing the flow of guests into the centre
Taking temperatures and adding guest names to the session list on our database
Chatting to guests and generally making them feel welcome
Other miscellaneous tasks as may be required by the session leader

Required strengths for this role:
You don’t need any special skills to volunteer for this role, but you do need the following:

Compassionate nature
Non-judgmental and non-discriminatory attitude
Ability to communicate effectively with a range of people from different backgrounds
Ability to work as part of a team or on your own initiative
Patience
Flexibility, Punctuality and reliability
Desire to make a positive difference in the livesof our guests

Volunteers in all roles need to comply with the termsof the volunteer agreement and to carry out their role in accordance with the training that we provide and the direction of the session leader. Volunteers need to be aware that Barnabus is a Christian charity. Whilst we do not expect volunteers or staff to be Christian or to actively participate in any Christian activities, we do ask that you are respectful of our beliefs and that you join us for a short prayer at the start of each session.