As the time was nearing for Thomas Aveling yr10 pupils to embark on their weeks work experience some discovered that their sponsors were unable to commit to providing this placement in the work place that was set up, One of our Trustee's Matt looked into what we could do and made contact with Thomas Aveling school and spoke with Mrs Sanders the
Work Experience Co-ordinator and between themselves and Medway education business partnership, we were able to set up a placement plan.
We took on a student we will call "H" (for GDPR reasons) who discovered the realism of what it takes for our charity to do behind the scenes to enable us to provide the service we do.
"H" was pretty amazed to discover that so much more than handing out food parcels and furniture to those in need happens behind the scenes, he found it amazing how much stuff there was to sort through and categorise into sections and that no sooner had it seemed a light was at the end of the tunnel of clearing the mass of items, a glance at the goods in area was just as full again as it was before they started sorting what was already there, this was just the electrical, furniture, clothing, books/toys etc.
Then there was the food, our own fleet going back and forth to collect the food donations greatly received from our sponsors/donors which again need to be categorised at a rate of knots as there is a critical time factor for chilled items that need to be either put straight into the giant walk-in fridge or freezer and as it all comes in mixed there is the sortation of the fruit, veg, dairy, non dairy, vegan, ready meals, meat, etc. etc. "H" was so blown away by all of this
"H" also spent time with our internal engineer who fixes the white goods that come in to go for sale in our shop which help to raise much needed funds to keep our services going.
"H" was so personally involved and enjoyed what he was doing so much that he asked if he could continue to help out after his work experience placement ends, of course "H" will be more than welcome to come and help out on occasions but it is a volunteer job and is unpaid.
It was a real pleasure and experience plus a learning curve for us and we maybe in the future open up for placements for those that would be interested in learning about this much needed service.
