Q&A with young volunteer Patrick Hall

Lenny O’Sullivan, writer and content creator for Finchley Foodbank, talks to Patrick Hall, who starting volunteering with us this year, about his experience and motivations.

We’re here before the Saturday client session. Do you always volunteer on Saturdays?

I always volunteer on Saturdays because I work during the week. I’ll occasionally do a Monday as well, when there’s a stock taking session, but to be honest, I prefer the Saturdays because they’re the client sessions so you get to meet people. The stock taking is good too, but it’s nice to feel like you’re making an impact more directly.

Can you talk me through what a normal client session looks like?

There are a few different roles. Essentially, people will come in and go to a fresh food table. Depending on the size of the household, they’ll then go into a room to get their dry goods, toiletries, and things like that. So, a range of things are going on, but it always involves talking to people, which is quite nice. Quite sociable. There also tends to be a couple of external organisations who come, I think AgeUK, and people from the council, and that helps people to access benefits and get support.

You joined fairly recently – what’s your experience been of starting out?

It’s been good. I think it’s well run. Some of the volunteer roles I’ve taken on in the past have been a bit chaotic because everyone’s a volunteer, but this is well organised. Everyone’s very friendly. Because there’s so many different volunteers and there’s lots of sessions throughout the week, you might see someone in one session and then miss them the next week because they’ve taken a different shift. But it’s always nice to meet new people. The clients who come in are all very nice people as well. So, it’s been a good experience so far.

As two of the younger volunteers at the foodbank, we are inevitably quite early on in our careers and interested in developing our professional skillsets. Can you think of any skills or experiences that young people could pick up by volunteering here, and how that might help them?

I think you definitely pick up interpersonal skills in this role. Learning to get on with people is important. Communicating well with other volunteers. There’s a lot of safeguarding you have to be mindful of as well, so that could come in useful in lots of careers. You also have to make judgments, which is something I’m still learning. A lot of the people who come in have other troubles in their lives, so you sometimes have to navigate social situations which can be a bit tricky, and also sometimes stand your ground and enforce a boundary, rather than just saying yes to everything, which is important in life.

What would you say to anyone thinking about volunteering?

I would say give it a go. I suppose it depends why people want to volunteer and what they’re hoping to get from it. It’s definitely a good thing to be involved in. Anything that gets you involved in the local community is going to be a positive experience.

What did you want to get from it?

I had a few different reasons for joining. One is that I moved to London in September 2024 and felt very detached from my local area. I felt like I could have been living anywhere. So, I wanted to do something that would allow me to meet people who lived nearby, and let me be a part of the local community. Another reason is that, with the state of the world at the moment, I wanted to do something practical, rather than just reading the news all the time and feeling completely disempowered. And it’s quite nice because, while there aren’t a lot of young people here, it’s good to meet people who aren’t just the same age as me, because the rest of my life is people the same age as me. So, I’ve quite enjoyed myself really.

Could you become a volunteer with us? If you are looking to use your skills, meet people, and make a difference in your community, you can find more information here: https://www.finchleyfoodbank.org.uk/volunteers-urgently-needed or email us at finchleyfoodbank@gmail.com. 

Ready to go: Patrick Hall outside Finchley Foodbank before a Saturday session