Grab an apron.
There’s a job with your name on it.
Plenty Kitchen runs on volunteers. Drivers and riders bring the food in. Sorters decide what it becomes. Cooks turn it into lunch, and washers-up make sure we can do it all again tomorrow. Nobody needs experience, just a few spare hours and a willingness to get a bit sticky. Every shift ends with lunch, a cup of tea and the warm, slightly smug feeling of having saved an awful lot of carrots.
Drive the van, pedal the cargo bike or work the sorting table. You will need a licence for the van, strong legs for the bike and a good eye for a tomato at the table. Shifts last two to three hours, early mornings and late afternoons.
Drivers, riders and sorters
ON THE ROAD
Chop, stir, taste, serve and scrub. Cooks work alongside our head cook, so no chef training is needed, and the washing-up crew are the quiet heroes of every lunch. Bring sensible shoes and a sense of humour.
Cooks and the crew at the sink
IN THE KITCHEN
Every shift ends with lunch. Volunteers eat at the same long table as everyone else, usually with an apron still on. Some come once a month, some come every day. Students come for the experience, retired cooks come for the company and a surprising number of people come for the washing-up, which they insist is relaxing.
Tell us your name, how to reach you and the jobs you fancy. Our volunteer coordinator will reply with a taster shift and a hairnet. This is a sample form for a fictional kitchen. Please do not enter health details, allergies or any other sensitive information.
Volunteer with us
JOIN THE ROTA
Tell us your name, how to reach you and the jobs you fancy. Our volunteer coordinator will reply with a taster shift and a hairnet. This is a sample form for a fictional kitchen. Please do not enter health details, allergies or any other sensitive information.
Your name
Your email
Which jobs interest you?
Send my detailsOther ways to help
Not the volunteering type? There are plenty of other ways to keep the pots full. Plenty Kitchen is fictional and takes no donations or payments on this template.
Give surplus food
Shops, cafés, farms and growers: tell us what you have and when, and we will come and collect it.
Lend a van
A spare van for one morning a week would double what we can rescue.
Host a fridge
Community centres, libraries and schools could host a second fridge. We bring the rules and the rota.
Fund a free class
A real kitchen might invite local businesses to sponsor free cookery places. This one is imaginary.
Before you pull on an apron
Straight answers to the questions new volunteers ask most.
Still got a question?
Write to hello@plentykitchen.example and, if this kitchen were real, someone would reply between lunch and the washing-up.
None at all. Our head cook gives every new volunteer a proper welcome, a tour and an easy first job.
Do I need cooking experience?
A single two-hour shift a month is genuinely useful. Plenty of people do more once they are hooked.
How much time do I need to give?
Volunteers aged 16 and over can join most shifts. Younger cooks are welcome at Kids’ Saturday with a grown-up.
Is there an age limit?
Everyone gets a short food safety induction. A real kitchen would also brief its drivers and check their licences.
Will I get training?
Yes. Team days of up to eight people are a brilliant way to clear a mountain of veg. Get in touch using the form.
Can my workplace volunteer as a team?
No. It is a fictional community kitchen created for a website template. Names, figures, partners and menus show how a real one could present itself.