The Rainbow Kitchen needs more than chefs and sous chefs working their magic in the kitchen to keep things going. There’s another group of volunteers who do as much as they are able to keep the whole thing running smoothly.
There’s Trucker, who comes early every day to make sure the chairs are set up properly and help out with anything else he’s asked to do.
There’s Dave, who says the Rainbow Kitchen offers the most nutritious and tasty lunch around. He can’t work a full shift or make a regular commitment, because he suffers from Crohn’s Disease. But he’s taken over looking after the Kitchen’s composting. It’s a job a lot of people don’t want to sign up for, but Dave’s happy to help out. He’s been a client at the Rainbow Kitchen for more than five years and now, he tends to the compost piles daily.
Curtis is easy to spot – he’s in the kitchen with the ladies, wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt under his apron. What’s his volunteer job? “Whatever they tell me to do,” he says, setting up a mandolin for chopping vegetables. For Curtis, the Kitchen is providing food handling experience that he plans to use to find a new job. For now, he’s building his experience by working five days a week.
