Ayr Salvation Army Food Bank

During this pandemic I have had an amazing opportunity to spend my spare time volunteering, I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and have grown not only as an individual but as a good team player. We have a great laugh and can confidently say we’ve never had a dull day.

I have been volunteering in the foodbank since June 2020, initially just as “some help” but eventually committed to it becoming part of my weekly schedule alongside attending Ayrshire college. I volunteer 2 days and sometimes nights to the maintenance and continuance of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at Ayr Salvation Army. Initially my role was to move things about and to do as I was asked but this has progressed to some of my ideas being taken into action.

I haven’t met the whole team due to guidelines and different days, but from the grapevine I hear they are very hard workers, we have members who interact with clients, which we’ve all had a chance to experience and the flip side has been, food-storing, stock rotating and delivering to other foodbanks. I tend to slot into the delivering, stock rotating kind of role, being the “brute strength” of the group. But it is here I have felt most useful and have been able to experience new things and mix with people from a diverse background.

A usual day would be going to one of the shops in Ayr and collecting the food, loading it into the car with Fiona and taking it back to the hall to be dated, sorted into boxes and stacked in the Sunday school room, which has been repurposed as a stock room due to high demand. We have been lucky to be able to support other organizations, such as various sheltered housing accommodations, primary schools and most recently a connection between ourselves and a mosque in Kilmarnock.

My favourite experience I have had so far, has been delivering to the mosque, the guys there are great and are greatly appreciative of our support. We had the opportunity to see their facilities and have seen firsthand the hard work they do in their community, where they see a diverse range of people seeking help. Deliveries to the mosque are becoming a regularity and it has been great to have been a part of their community outreach program.

Most recently, I have been given a little bit more of a responsibility, answering the phones and doors on off days when the foodbank is closed. This has helped me to develop my inter-personal skills and has allowed me to meet a diverse range of people. We have a great laugh at the foodbank, so much that it doesn’t feel like a task, I enjoy going and I am grateful for the opportunity to develop myself by becoming a small cog in the machine that is Ayr Salvation Army’s foodbank.

For anyone reading this at my age (18), I would encourage you to volunteer, it is a great way to develop yourself and a great thing to put on your CV, not all work experience has to seem like it was work… as said earlier I have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences.