Volunteer as a Mentor

Make a life-changing difference to people living in food poverty

Our Mentored Home Cooking courses provide help and support for people living in food poverty. Rather than providing a cooking class that teaches a recipe, we provide a recipe for life-long dietary and financial change.

How it works

Mentoring takes place on Whats app or the phone so you’ll need to be comfortable with one of these communication methods
You’ll need between a minimum of two to three hours over a two week period to support students on our Mentored home cooking course. You can interact more with students if you would like.
Your ongoing commitment is flexible. You can sign up for as many courses as you like and take a break between them. Many of our current mentors fit this around their full time work.
Interactions with students are typically only a few minutes long, so we ask that you respond to messages within a few hours and are available primarily in the evenings and weekends, even if it’s just to check in for a brief period
The courses are 100% remote learning so we welcome volunteers from anywhere in the UK
It’s hugely rewarding supporting the students on their food journey and seeing how they progress

We consistently get great outcomes and build confidence by providing help, motivation and practical support so the students can continue to buy and cook healthy and affordable food for life. Our courses also hugely benefit student finances as well as improving their mental and physical well-being.
The main skills you’ll need are empathy and a calm consistent manner. It’s great if you enjoy cooking but not essential but you’ll need to be a people person and a great communicator. One of the barriers for people is confidence so building a supportive relationship is key. Your role is to be a guide and help, cajole, encourage and inspire
Read about What we do for more information on the courses.
We’ll provide all the training and support you need to successfully mentor students through the course and every volunteer is allocated with a course co-ordinator. Our course co-ordinators are always in the group with you so you can always ask for help if you need it

Come onboard with Bags of Taste and together, we can support people have better health and finances for life

Volunteer as a Cooking Mentor

Make a life-changing difference to people living in food poverty

How it works

About Bags of Taste

Commission/Refer

Support Bags of Taste

For students