JEWISH CARE

Mealtime Support Volunteers
Betty and Asher Loftus Centre, Friern Barnet. N11

Role Summary:

This rewarding position involves providing support during mealtimes within our residential homes. Responsibilities may vary across our services and can include delivering meals to residents in their rooms, assisting care staff by helping residents into the dining room or to their seats, transferring food from trolleys to tables, serving meals, clearing away afterward, and helping residents at mealtimes.

Time Commitment:   Various shifts available

How this role makes a difference:
Mealtimes are an important part of each day for our residents, offering both structure and enjoyment. By volunteering during these busy periods, you provide an extra pair of hands that helps our care staff focus more of their time on individual needs. Your support also brings a friendly, welcoming presence that can make mealtimes even more enjoyable for our residents.

Key Responsibilities - What you’ll be doing in this role:

Tasks vary across resources but could include the following (full training will be given as necessary):

• Offering a friendly extra pair of hands to support care staff and residents during mealtimes
• Being available to assist during the busiest times of the day
• Helping to set tables or clear away after meals
• Serving meals to residents
• Assisting residents to the dining room or helping them to their seats
• Providing company and social interaction to residents during mealtimes
• Assisting residents with their meals (with full training provided where needed)
• Following instructions and providing feedback to Jewish Care staff supervisors as required

Impact of the Role

Your support helps create a positive, sociable, and well-organised mealtime environment, enhancing residents’ wellbeing and contributing meaningfully to daily life in our homes.

Skills & Experience Required: Person Specification

We are looking for volunteers who can bring warmth, positivity, and reliability to this role. The ideal volunteer will have:

• A warm smile, a can-do attitude, and a cheerful demeanour
• The ability to confidently engage with a diverse range of people and a genuine enjoyment of helping others
• An understanding of the issues that can affect people in later life
• Reliability, consistency, and dependability
• Good conversational and listening skills, with a clear speaking voice
• Patience, empathy, and a non-judgemental approach
• The ability to work both independently and as part of a team, while staying within the boundaries of the role—recognising what should or shouldn’t be done and knowing when to seek advice or report concerns

Induction, Learning & Development:
Training is available so volunteers can carry out their roles to the highest professional standards, develop new skills, build confidence, make new friends and take on new and increasingly responsible tasks. 

Jewish Care will provide the following training, essential for this role:

• Provide you with access to a Volunteer Handbook and all Policies and Procedures.
• Provide Induction Training:  Getting to know Jewish Care, Communication & Disability Awareness, Boundaries & Confidentiality, Safeguarding, Health & Safety, GDPR.
• Provide on the job induction.

Benefits of Volunteering with Jewish Care:

Without our volunteers, we simply couldn’t function.  We absolutely depend on you.  Whatever your age, disability, whether you are working, unemployed or retired, there are opportunities to help at Jewish Care.

As well as helping others you’ll get the chance to develop skills, build confidence and make new friends.

• Enhance the lives of older people, making a real difference to the Jewish Community we support.
• Be part of a great team and make new friends.
• Build your confidence and develop transferable skills.
• Access to a comprehensive training programme designed for the social care environment.
• Gain valuable experience and enhance your CV
  
  

Our aim is to enable people to enjoy a first-class experience as volunteers, making the most of their skills to make an impact on the communities that Jewish Care serve.

Why get involved with Jewish Care?
The work of Jewish Care and the services we provide to our community are vital.  We touch the lives of 10,000 people each week, with everything we do being underpinned by our Jewish values and ethics.  We provide services to:

• Older people
• People with Mental Health needs
• Holocaust Survivors
• People who are living with Dementia
• People with physical and sensory disabilities
• People who care for others

We can only do this thanks to our amazing professional staff of 1,400 and the 3,000 dedicated volunteers who help make our work possible.

Next Steps to becoming a volunteer at Jewish Care:
Step 1: Please complete an expression of interest form for this role, which will automatically create a profile on our volunteer management system.  After you have applied, we will be in touch to discuss this role in more detail.
Step 2: Following a successful conversation, with a member of the Volunteers Team or Hiring Manager you will be invited for an interview (and asked to bring identification with you).
Step 3: Following a successful interview, you will be offered the volunteering role and asked to add further information into your volunteer profile, providing two references and completing a DBS (previously CRB) application form online.  Additional paperwork may need to be completed for some roles e.g. volunteer driver.
Step 4: You will be invited to attend mandatory Volunteer Induction Training, as well as any specialist training relevant to your volunteer role. Training is to enable volunteers to carry out roles to the highest professional standards, develop skills, build confidence and meet other new volunteers
Step 5:  Mazel-tov/Congratulations! Once we have received and recorded a suitable DBS, satisfactory references and training has been completed, you are officially part of the Jewish Care Volunteer network!

This is a voluntary position that supports the work or our services and is not replacing the work of a paid member of staff.  This role does not form any part of any contract of employment.

If you have any questions at all about this role or about volunteering with Jewish Care,  please contact volunteering@jcare.org or telephone 020 8922 2405.