Training for Food Kitchen Volunteers

The Roger Edwards Trust has supported the Usk Food Kitchen for a number of years by providing training grants. The Food Kitchen is run wholly by volunteers and provides hot meals two lunchtimes each week for local people in need. These include the elderly, those who struggle with mental or physical health issues, those in financial difficulty, people with learning difficulties and the homeless.

Volunteers must work safely and are required to have qualifications in food hygiene and catering safety. The Roger Edwards Trust generously provides funding to ensure our volunteers can attain these essential qualifications so they can be of service to our community through producing nutritious and tasty meals at our Food Kitchen. We have repeatedly been awarded a rating of 5 (the highest rating) by environmental health inspectors and it is our aim to maintain this standard.

Additionally, the Roger Edwards Trust has funded qualifications in first aid for several volunteers so we always have a first-aider on duty should there be any accidents such as cut fingers or minor scalds. We received funding for 10 volunteers to attend in-person, very useful, fire safety training which included how to use a fire blanket and fire extinguisher should a fire occur in the kitchen.

In any voluntary project there is the need to regularly recruit to ensure that current volunteers can take a break if necessary or need to retire from volunteering. With the support of the Roger Edwards Trust, we are able to confidently engage new volunteers knowing their training can be funded. The same applies to our current volunteer team, many of whom have been involved for years, who are required to refresh their training every 2 years. The trustees have always been most helpful, generous and supportive of our charitable efforts. For this we are most grateful as without trained volunteers we could not continue to provide this valued service to the community of Usk.