Pantry Volunteer x 5

St Giles Trust seeks volunteers to support its Pantry, a social supermarket offering affordable food and poverty alleviation services. Volunteers will assist with operations, stock management, customer support, and meal planning. Applicants should have retail experience, food hygiene knowledge, and a commitment to the charity’s values. Applications close on 2nd September 2025.


Responsible to:

Pantry Coordinator

Responsible for:

Supporting the Pantry

Hours:

Flexible hours

Grade:

Volunteer

Location:

Kensington, Islington or Hackney

Holiday:

Salary:

Volunteer

Application Deadline:

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 at 11pm
We will be shortlisting and interviewing candidates on a rolling basis. We reserve the right to close this position at any time.

Please note this role requires Enhanced Adult DBS checks.
St Giles Trust is a Charity helping people facing severe disadvantage to find jobs, homes, and the right support they need. We help them to become positive contributors to local communities and wider society. We passionately believe everybody is capable of changing their lives. Our mission is we empower people to overcome injustices for themselves, their families and their local communities – we achieve this through offering support from someone who has been there. Our peer-led services form the backbone of our work.

You will be responsible for volunteering at the Pantry and providing support around deliveries and collection. The Pantry is a Social Supermarket which will support clients to access affordable and healthy food each week (for a maximum of six months). The Pantry offers both a responsive solution and a sustainable route out of poverty, ensuring people can access healthy food whilst getting the support they need. The Pantry is designed to look and feel like a regular shop, but provides food at an affordable cost of just £4.50 per week.

You will be part of a comprehensive name of the team/function service delivering across St Giles Trust that is mindful of, and promotes the organisation’s Vision, Mission, Values and strategic aims.

We are recruiting for volunteers at North Kensington (W10), South Kensington (SW3), Islington (N7) and Hackney (N16), with reasonable travel expenses paid. After your shift, you will also be entitled to a free shop in line with the membership rules of our members.

(1) Key Deliverables
Main responsibilities consist of supporting the daily running and operation of the Pantry, including:
Supporting the Pantry coordinator ensuring the shop is well-stocked, clean and presentable.
To carry out and comply with all health and safety procedures and policies, including food safety and manual handling.
To ensure all food items are correctly labelled and within the given use-by date.
Greeting members and providing light-touch positive support whilst maintaining confidentiality at all times.
To assist customers to choose their shopping items and to complete simple forms.
On occasion, offering meal planning advice along with recipes and food shopping tips.
Helping to unload deliveries and ensuring food is correctly stored.
Ensuring the Pantry always has a welcoming and dignified experience for all members.
On occasion, offering meal planning advice along with recipes and food shopping tips.
Helping to unload deliveries and ensuring food is correctly stored.
Ensuring the Pantry always has a welcoming and dignified experience for all members.
The postholder will be expected to deliver on the following:

1. Oversee and manage the charity’s financial activities, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Develop and implement financial policies, procedures, and controls to safeguard assets and maintain fiscal responsibility.

(2) Knowledge Experience
What we are looking for from you – Person Specification, When completing your application form please address the points marked with (A) set out below.
Experience
Previous experience of working within a retail and customer-facing role. (A)
Good experience of cooking techniques with the ability to advise others on how to cook on a budget. (A)
Knowledge
Knowledge of basic food hygiene and stock rotation principles. (A)
Knowledge of anti-discriminatory working practices, and the implications of both within the working environment.
Practical application of diversity awareness and unconscious bias in employment.
Desirable
Knowledge of and commitment to safeguarding practices and policies, and an ability to promote safeguarding among vulnerable clients and colleagues. (A)
Skills and Abilities
Skills Abilities
Ability to be a flexible and co-operative member of a team. (A)
Ability to demonstrate knowledge and awareness of the issues faced by our client group, in particular barriers faced by people with lived in experience. (A)
Good communication skills.
Self-motivated and enjoys working within a team.
Attitude
Respect for the values and ethos of St Giles Trust. (A)
Personal and professional integrity.
Positive attitude towards staff and our members.
Emotionally resilient.
How To Apply/ Additional Info
Interviews will take place virtually via MS Teams and will last approximately 1 hour followed by an assessment that will take 45mins.
Any individuals interested in the role are to complete the supporting information statement on the application form and submit their application directly to – hetul.shah@stgilestrust.org.uk
(3) About Us
In St Giles, you can expect a competitive salary, generous leave allowance, staff pension, flexible working, a mentoring programme, an advice and counselling service, season ticket loan and much more.

We are an equity and inclusion-confident employer. We welcome all applications and we particularly encourage applications from people of the global majority (black, brown, multi-heritage) and those who identify as disabled, nonresponsive, or neurodiverse, with any protected characteristics and/or social barriers or challenges. We value the empowering and informative impact that all lived experiences and diversity of thought can offer the organisation.

St Giles will guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria set out in the Job Description for the vacancy.


Ready to Apply?

1. Click HERE to download the application form.
2. Complete the supporting information statement on the application
3. Once completed, please return it by email to hetul.shah@stgilestrust.org.uk . Please include the Job Title and Job Code in your email subject.
4. The deadline for this job application is Tuesday 2nd September 2025 at 11pm.

This job description is a statement of requirements at the time of writing and is not contractual. It should not be seen as precluding future changes after appointment to this role. Read more