How to Get Involved: Volunteer
If you support the mission and values of the Common Good Soup Kitchen Program, we urge you to consider joining our cohort of volunteers. You can help out as often as you desire, and can choose from a wide range of volunteer tasks that are vital to the survival of the program.
During the summer months, when the program runs the Common Good Café to raise money for the winter soup kitchen, much of the volunteer work involves helping out in a busy restaurant (you do, however, get to stroll by the ocean on your breaks!).
Volunteer service is an indispensable force that not only simplifies day-to-day tasks, but brings people from all walks of life together to find ways to make their community healthier and happier, as well as to educate community members on the natural foods principles on which the organization operates.
There is always plenty to do; The following list, while not extensive, should give you an idea of what different services you can take part in and duties you can perform as a volunteer:
• Soup Kitchen Distributors
In order to distribute our free soup to members of the community, we need drivers to deliver the food and other volunteers to find people in need.
• Soup Kitchen Sous Chef
* A sous chef, or an assistant chef ("sous" is French for "under) helps in the kitchen with peeling, chopping, tasting, packaging, labeling, scrubbing, and a multitude of other tasks.
• Sous Café Server
* As assistant to the servers on duty, these volunteers are primarily in charge of keeping everything stocked, the coffees brewed, and greeting and seating customers or bringing food out from the kitchen while the server is busy.
• Facilities Crew
Help keep the place in shape, and clean and spruce it up as needed.
• Membership/Volunteer Team
The membership team spreads the word about membership in the Common Good Soup Kitchen Community, networks, tracks and recruits volunteers.
• Fundraising Committee
Volunteers interested in fundraising can plan and implement ways to benefit the organization's finances.
• Special Events Group
These volunteers are the brains behind our events – thinking them up and making them happen! Common events that take place in the café include musical performances, yoga classes, and open mic nights.
• Education Committee
The Education Committee is in charge of recruiting instructors for workshops and speakers for lectures and discussions. These volunteers also help plan the schedule for the classes and workshops.
• Green Projects Coordinators
If you consider yourself a friend to the environment, you are welcome to join us as a Green Projects Committee, which is responsible for recycling, gardening and composting at the café and soup kitchen.
• Behind the Scenes: writers and visionaries
As a young organization with a large vision, we need talented writers and editors to promote all aspects of the business by researching and writing grants, press releases, stories for magazines and newspapers, and to help maintain the integrity of the web site.
• Other Volunteer Roles
* Please suggest something we should or could be doing and then help us figure out how to do it.
If you are interested in volunteering, send an e-mail to: commongoodsoup@gmail.com.
click here for a volunteer sheet.
How to Get Involved: Invest in Common Good
The Common Good Community invites you to be an investor in our organization. We continually need to raise funds for a multitude of tasks, such as performing minor renovations on our space, obtaining special soup kettles and other kitchen equipment, and purchasing supplies and food products.
Donations can be made through our contributing membership program at various levels, or the investor can make a start-up loan to the community through our investor program. Investors will make no-interest loans of $1,000 or more to the community, and we will enter in to a written agreement to repay the loan as quickly as possible out of future contributions and sales revenue. Loan repayment will be the first priority for our funds after the necessary "survival" operating costs, including rent, utilities, salaries, raw food materials - in other words, all funds beyond those necessary to keep open and maintain the soup program at current production levels will be used to repay start-up loans. We expect that these will all be short term loans, i.e less than 12 months. This way individuals can help us start up, help make this program become a success and recoup their funds as well. They will be truly investing in the community and the success of the program will be their dividend.
Contact Larry Stettner for more details. 207-266-2733.