Volunteer Café Assistant

Amazing, giving, and inspiring are just a few words we would use to describe our volunteers.

Our volunteers are integral to the services we provide and the people we support. If you are looking for a rewarding role where you will make a difference whilst gaining experience along the way, then join us here at Rethink Mental Illness.

About the role

We are looking for Volunteer Café Assistants to support our John Hall Wellness Gardens in Leek. You will be based at our new café and, ideally, you will be able to commit 4 hours per week to volunteering.

You will receive training and regular supervision to ensure you feel confident in your role.

About the service

John Hall Gardens is a Community Education Garden & Café green space for the community of Leek, local schools, colleges, and social enterprises. With the aim of enabling the local community to work/learn and socialise with people with mental and physical health support needs. This includes adults of all ages and children and young people.

Assisting the Café Supervisor and your fellow volunteers, you will play an integral part in John Hall Wellness Garden's future, by helping to deliver a café experience for the general public, Friends of the Garden, and guests. If you think you can make a difference and commit some time on a regular on-going basis, we would love to hear from you!

This is a great opportunity to develop your current existing skills, learn new skills, and network with other volunteers. We welcome anyone wishing to gain experience or have an interest in going into the hospitality sector.

What you will be doing as a Volunteer Café Assistant

You will have the opportunity to assist with food preparation, presentation, cleaning, and serving/selling high-quality food and beverages.

Under the guidance of the Café Supervisor, you, together with other volunteers will ensure that the Café is compliant with all relevant health and safety legislation and pursuing an outstanding performance and food hygiene rating.

In addition, there will be further opportunities to support activity groups in the café, special events, and input into event and menu planning.

The main tasks Volunteer Café Assistants will support with are:

• Support café staff, other volunteers, and trainees in the smooth day-to-day running of the café.
• Carry out basic catering tasks including food preparation, cleaning, and serving food to customers.
• Operate the coffee machine (full training will be provided).
• Handle cash or card transactions and operate the till.
• Support the Café Supervisor to ensure relevant paperwork is completed and checks are carried out ensuring compliance against relevant food safety and health and safety policies and procedures.
• Ensure the kitchen area and café are clean and tidy (including equipment, walls, floors, tables, and work surfaces), and waste is discarded safely.
• Provide good customer service, dealing with visitors and customers in a friendly and polite manner.

What will make you a great fit for this role?

• Eagerness to learn and train in all aspects of the café catering operation
• Cheerful nature, good interpersonal skills, can communicate confidently with a range of people of all ages
• Good customer care service skills

Although this is not essential - you may also have:

• Basic food safety knowledge or HACCP. Further training, will be provided including allergens
• Experience in food handling and basic preparation of foods

If you have any questions about this opportunity please contact

Who are we?

We're Rethink Mental Illness, a leading charity provider of mental health services in England. We support thousands of people through our groups, services, policy, campaigns and advice and information. Our work supports us in delivering on our mission: "A better life for everyone severely affected by mental illness."

It is an exciting time to join our growing charity. We are on a transformation journey, one that supports the delivery of the organisation strategy - delivering Communities that Care. Supporting employees, managers and leaders through this change is a key priority for the People function. Just like its key that we attract diverse people to come and work for us.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

Diversity is important to us and we appreciate difference through difference, inclusiveness and belonging. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world, our society and the diverse communities we're working with. By including everyone, we are able to draw on the unique experiences and expertise of our people to help shape and enrich our workplace and improve our services. One way we are doing is through our valued staff networks which play a critical and highly valued role in keeping us focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and engaged employer. We recognise and support staff networks for our Black, Asian and minority ethnic and our LGBTQIA+ colleagues. We are also proud to have been awarded Disability Confident Employer status and are a signatory to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.

Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation

We have an ambition of become a truly anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider - and in our efforts to influence policy and wider societal factors impacting on mental health set out in our anti-racist statement . We have designed a multi-year anti-racist programme of work contained in our Race Equality Action Plan which demonstrate our intention to hold ourselves accountable and be judged on our progress on becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.

We therefore actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including applicants with lived experience, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (or questioning), Intersex and (asexual) (LGBTQIA+), people with a disability, and people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.