Hear from our Volunteer | The Margins Project Drop-Ins

7 June 2025

Kathy has been volunteering at The Margins Project's Drop-Ins for three years, helping us provide food, advice, community and more to those facing homelessness and pertinent social justice issues. Volunteer Week 2025, she shared with us what drove her to volunteer, the importance of relating to people from all walks of life, and what a typical day volunteering with us entails.

"I enjoy it, full stop. I’ve volunteered for three years here, every Wednesday I come and it’s good because I get to know the people who come to use the service, the volunteers, and the trainees in the kitchen – it’s great. I do it because it suits me.

I’ve got a background in social work and teaching, so I’m very used to dealing with situations that can arise when you’ve got different people together and what I can do to help people in some way. I don’t think of myself as a volunteer; I think of myself as a worker and use the same standards, and that’s important to me.

The team here is very good. Sallie [Advice & Engagement Worker] is an asset to Margins. She is supportive of all and can be relied upon to help and advise as best she can. The team is good and we have some laughs. We’re a good gang here, some are in situations that are difficult and it gives them a role, an outlet, it works well. It's all about relating to people. It’s very important, as a volunteer, that you’re getting on with fellow workers.

Also something that quite suits me; I’m retired and have two volunteering jobs and that gives me two anchors in the week. My other volunteering work is in a bookshop and you get a completely different set of people coming in, so it’s great.

I found The Margins Project by looking on the internet for voluntary opportunities in Islington, and I thought that would suit me. Also, on the advert, it said about having a delicious meal! The food here is good!

I feel very fortunate of the work that I’ve done for all these years, where every day was different, and I was able to be of help to people. You want people to go away and think that was a nice encounter, I had a nice meal, and that lady was so friendly. Lots of people coming in have had raw deals, a lot of people would not respect them on the street, but everybody should receive a friendly word, and you hope something you might say might be quite profound to them. People have said things to me in my life that have just stuck; simple words, simple phrases in certain situations that have made an impact.

A typical Drop-In day begins with preparation; some of the work starts at 8am – cutting up the bread, buttering it, laying the tables, sort the teas and coffees out, go around to our surplus food suppliers, pick up as much as you can - all that takes time. Then we have a team meeting where work is divvied up, we each have 2 dining tables, someone does the door, some people in the kitchen, some supervising showers: it’s well organised. We used to race around with teas and coffees then race around with the meals, but now we do teas and coffees first, then start dishing out food, we’ve got a more settled atmosphere, a dining experience, and it’s working.

What you should always try and do is remember names. That’s so important. That was one thing that I was really pleased about as when I started here, people very soon got my name and because I’ve been here a long time, people get to know me and get involved in conversations. I never probe but can offer that we have services and people here who can help.

There are people that come who can be angry, not well, frustrated, but we’re all human, you have to be aware of that. You do get feedback, if somebody wants to engage with you… this morning, somebody said “I want to sit down with Kath and talk about Lord Lucan, I want to tell you more” – that’s positive feedback, in a way, he wants to engage with me and I think that’s great! I’ll say “For gosh sake!” and he’ll laugh! It’s about knowing that you’ve got some warmth between you, that matters, and it’s such an important ingredient when you’re working with people.

I’ve always been absolutely fascinated in how people conduct their lives and how we’re so different, and never thought to want to change people, it’s about empowering and making people feel good about themselves.

I get frustrated sometimes, but I’m here and here to stay. I balance that with what I get out of it and what I can put into it. I bring myself along and go home thinking I enjoyed that! And I’ll do that today. I talked to so and so, wasn’t it fascinating that so and so told me that, you get lovely individual feedback. Volunteers need it, paid workers need it, everybody needs it. But that isn’t what drives me here at all; it’s because I like it and if I can be of use to people, that’s a plus."

Thank you to Kathy and all our incredible volunteers.

Thank you to our surplus food suppliers, guests, chefs, partners, staff, Margins Café diners, followers, funders, and donors.

Find out more about the services The Margins Project provides here.

Support by donating here or purchase a wishlist item here for our guests who are rough sleeping, asylum seekers, and facing other social justice barriers.

See the Drop Ins in action in our film here: