Since Lockdown and the change to our regular operations to cook and provide meals for people experiencing homelessness in temporary accommodation across Manchester we have had new support from some amazingly talented chefs who would normally be out at work. They have been helping us cook delicious and nutritious food every day. We sat down with Keaton who is a Commis chef at … in Yorkshire to talk about his experience volunteering with us.

How did you come to volunteer with Barnabus? “After coming back to Manchester before the lockdown I was looking for ways to volunteer. I saw that Barnabus was cooking for temporarily housed rough sleepers and needed chefs, so I got in touch.”

What do you do day to day when you volunteer with Barnabus? “When we come in the morning first thing is too see what food has been donated and do the best we can, last week we had lots of fruit so we made rhubarb crumble, and we also had a massive donation of Gammon so we were able to cook that too. It’s nice to be preparing nice homely comfort foods, It’s not the weird fancy food that I would be normally be doing in the restaurants it’s simple food that everyone will enjoy eating. The gammon went down really well so it’s been requested again. I enjoy coming in and I do miss working in the kitchen, so this is a good way to stop me getting bored.”

What has been your favourite part of volunteering with Barnabus? “It’s been really nice seeing the community response to the crisis, for example there are too many chefs wanting to volunteer so they’ve had to be turned away. We’ve got a great team working in the kitchen here who didn’t need to be here but they are helping week after week. It’s been great seeing Manchester come together to support those who need it in this crisis.”

We have been really moved by the support of our volunteers and volunteer chefs commitment and hard work to assist our team, their added wealth of experience and dedication has enabled us to provide tasty and nutritious meals for people experiencing homelessness.