Become a Friend of Mustard Tree

About Mustard Tree

Vision

We believe in a Greater Manchester where everyone has the opportunity to be a connected, valued and contributing member of society.

Mission

We create opportunities for people to help themselves through providing practical support, friendship, connections into work, improvements to health and wellbeing plus new experiences to encourage aspiration.

Volunteers will move between all these roles, although you can choose to focus on one in particular if you like.

These include the Food Club and Community Shop, the collection and delivery service, support services, helpdesk, and all the classes we run here.

It's an exceptionally dynamic, exciting, friendly and warm place to volunteer, and you will really become embedded in our community, forming bonds with trainees, staff members and other volunteers.

Food club

Food club is our alternative to a food bank. It’s a way of providing free or heavily discounted food to people without sacrificing choice and autonomy. This is an extension of one of our most important values – dignity.

Volunteering on Food Club is an activity that gives you a lot of face-to-face contact with our service users, so it’s definitely one where you’ll get to chat. Some people will need support and advice in their choices, most know exactly what they want. It’s a nice one where you can go with the flow and make some people very happy.

Community Shop

The Community Shop is where we sell all our furniture, white goods, clothes and trinkets. Service users in various situations qualify for a voucher that allows them to get some things for free, again allowing choice as a dignified alternative to hand-outs. The Community Shop is also open to the public and generates a significant amount of revenue for the charity.

This role is much like working in any other charity shop: sorting donations, putting out stock, operating the tills and helping customers.

Reception

Reception is the first point of contact for everyone that visits Mustard Tree – clients, corporate partners, mayors, support workers, the lot. When you’re on reception you’re the face of the whole building, so it’s important that you’re always friendly and compassionate. You’ll manage enquiries, bookings and appointments, and signpost people to appropriate services.

This role requires a solid understanding of Mustard Tree’s inner workings, so it takes a little time and training to get good at it. However, it’s also one of the most rewarding.

Helpdesk

Similarly to working on reception, helpdesk is about giving that Mustard Tree Welcome – warm, helpful and attentive. It also requires a bit of training and similarly gives an insight into how we function on a daily basis. It’s mainly calls from people offering donations, but people ring up about all sorts of things.

Out on the vans

It’s much more fun than it sounds, especially if you’re old enough to drive one (25). Driver’s mates are loved for lifting tables and lifting spirits. If you’re lucky, you’ll also get to go and pick out furniture to sell in the shop!

Working on the vans also has a massive amount of customer service involved, as you’re mostly picking up donations from our generous donors or dropping things off for clients and customers. You will need to have a warmth about you, a level of patience and a love of chat, and ideally some significant core strength.

Because going out on the vans can be physically demanding, it’s not for everyone. There’s an option on the application form to state whether heavy lifting is something you feel capable of doing.

Skills that would help you to carry out this role:

A compassionate, patient approach towards our service users and an ability to work independently.