Volunteers are Priceless

I have been volunteering most Sunday's for ECHO - Lincoln Branch Community Kitchen since Christmas Day 2018.

ECHO provides a hot 2-course meal, hot and cold drinks, and a cold food bag for ‘laters’ every Sunday. Currently our kitchen is based at Croft Street Community Centre, and we have seen numbers steadily rising to the point that we regularly serve over 70 people each week.

But its more than just a kitchen serving food. Our volunteer team are reliable, well organised, caring and compassionate, and a great sense of humour is essential! We greet our regulars by name – as simple as it sounds, this is a big deal and reinforces each visitor’s sense of self-worth. We provide a safe space for people to come and have a natter over a cuppa. I have been a Mental Health First Aider since 2020 – this means as a team – we are able to assist with more than just an empty stomach!

We have a team of approx. 25 core volunteers signed up, and we usually have approx. 10-12 volunteers each week undertaking different roles, welcoming, front of house serving hot food, drinks, cold bags, in the kitchen dishing up hot main course and puddings, washing and tidying up, litter picking etc.

We recently worked out that our volunteers accumatively work at least 3,172 hours a year unpaid. And if we had to pay them at the current National Living Wage rate it would cost us a staggering £36,287.68 a year!

To find out more about the great work we do - just follow the ECHO facebook page - (2) Facebook

As a final note, my motivation for doing volunteering is by no means completely altruistic. Whilst difficult and challenging at times, it is extremely grounding. Every single week I am reminded of how fortunate I am. It has helped me focus on what is genuinely important in life - I no longer ‘sweat the small stuff’!