OKFP - Your Community Needs You!

Sponsored Editorial

A local charity is looking for some expert volunteers to help the organisation as it grows and develops.

Old Kilpatrick Food Parcels (OKFP) celebrated its fifth anniversary this year.

It has grown from a grassroots initiative to help residents access food and prescriptions during the pandemic to a thriving community charity and social enterprise.

Between them OKFP and OKFP Hub CIC offer the community a range of support including a free food pantry, surplus food collection station and the pay-what-you-can Chatty Café in Napier Hall and the Wee Chatty Café down by the Saltings.

They also host regular community events, offer room hire and provide training opportunities for their volunteers.

The organisation is backed by an amazing group of volunteers who help make sure everyone who visits is treated to a warm welcome.

Alongside the volunteers there is a small team of dedicated staff but, as founder Maureen Cummings explained, they are now in need of some specialist volunteers to join their Board and volunteer team.

Maureen said: “Weʼve grown quickly in the past five years, this includes the range of services we can offer, the number of families and individuals we support and the number of volunteers who help.

“So we do need experts who have experience working in larger organisations to join our Board to help guide and advise the charity as it further develops.”

Maureen is keen to recruit volunteers with experience in accountancy, social media marketing, policy and procedures, funding applications and HR.

She added: “These are all very specialist fields and as a small charity we donʼt have the budget to employ staff in these roles so they usually fall to myself.

“Weʼre not expecting Board volunteers to do these jobs, just keep us right and be a sounding board we can bounce ideas off.

“In terms of time commitment, the Board meets every three months for two hours, this can be in person or via Zoom.”

Maureen is also keen to recruit volunteers with these specialist skills to help on a regular basis possibly offering a few hours a week of their time.

She said: “This would perhaps suit someone who is retired or working part-time and can share some of their skills to help our local community.

“Again we can work around what suits the individual volunteer – most of these specialist roles can be done from home over a few hours each week.

“If you want to find out more please just give me a call or pop into the Napier Hall Monday to Friday between 12 – 4pm.

“If you drop in youʼll see us in action and understand the difference this space makes to our local community.”

To find out more call Maureen on 07916310806 or drop into Napier Hall, 312 Dumbarton Road, Old Kilpatrick.