Volunteer With Us

Volunteering is a wonderful way to make friends, feel great and have fun. But what are the different ways you can get involved?

At a café session, the time commitment is 30 mins, 2 hours or 4 hours. Volunteers sign up for any shifts they want to do, there is no fixed commitment. Our volunteers are from secondary school age and older.

Wednesdays

On a Wednesday we have anything between 2 to 5 volunteers covering a variety of roles. For example, a volunteer:

• sets up and packs away the tables and chairs in the half an hour before and after the café session
• works on the serving desk, greeting, taking orders & payments, and chatting to all our customers
• makes drinks in the kitchen and tops up the cakes on the serving desk
• helps deliver orders to customers, clearing tables and washing up
• helps at our monthly Stay and Play session, keeping an eye on the kids area so that everyone stays safe, has fun and caregivers get a little break to enjoy their drinks

Saturdays

On a Saturday we have anything between 6 and 9 volunteers. In addition to the above roles, a volunteer:

• cooks all the hot food (eggs, bacon, and sausages)
• calls the orders to the right team member and preps the trays, plates and food
• hand washes everything before running it through the dishwasher and helps deliver orders and clear when it gets particularly busy

We double up our front of house team, with two volunteers on the service desk, often with our fantastic Duke of Edinburgh volunteers, and two volunteers taking out orders and clearing and cleaning tables

Alternatively, there are some volunteering options outside of the regular café sessions:

• All of our cakes and savoury snacks are homemade by regular or occasional bakers
• We have a small team who help serve food and drinks at ad hoc events like parties and funerals
• Lots of general background ‘stuff’ like ordering stock, updating our volunteers and community via email, social media and MAD News, and organising events

Duke of Edinburgh

If you are exploring or have signed up to the Duke of Edinburgh, we would love for you to volunteer with us. We have a lot of experience working with young volunteers. Please email us at hello@thirstycafemarcham.co.uk to get the ball rolling.

Employer-sponsored volunteer days

Employer-sponsored volunteering is where the employees of an organisation take paid time off to volunteer during work hours. It offers employees the chance to give something back in an engaged and meaningful way. Many organisations, like the NHS and BT, offer up to 5 days a year of sponsored volunteer days. We would absolutely love to have you join us for an employer-sponsored session and can support you with any documentation you may need.

What next?

We believe Thirsty Café is a huge asset to our community but it relies completely on volunteers. We would love you to join our team in whatever way you can. Get in touch via email, phone or online or drop it to the café and speak to one of our volunteers.