Our first instalment of ‘A Day in the Life of…’ will look into the key role our driver and storesperson Matt has within Micah Liverpool.
Matt came to us at the end of 2017 through Liverpool in Work and Intermediate Labour Market (ILM) funding which helps people aged 18 – 29 get into work.
We threw him in at the deep end with a store room full of food ready for the Christmas period and he wasted no time getting stuck in to sorting and organising the stacks of crates.
Now he’s settled into a routine dealing with donations, sorting stock and driving between two foodbanks and the community market. We spoke to Matt and asked him to talk us through an average week:
Monday
I start at 8am on a Monday morning, the same as the rest of the team, and jump in the van to go and collect our FareShare order so we can have it at the Community Market.
Once I’ve dropped a van load off at St Michael’s I can go back to the store and sort some stuff out while the Metropolitan Cathedral come and drop off their weekly donation. Then I go back to the Community Market and take some more stuff to keep the tables full of things for people to buy. Once the Market is over I make sure we’re all prepped for the food bank the next day at St Vincent’s.
Tuesday
Tuesday is our first food bank of the week and it’s usually the quieter of the two. I make sure we’ve got enough food, toiletries and clothes (we only give out clothes on a Tuesday) and drive it down the road in 2 or 3 trips. If we’re looking short on any of the essential items I can drive round to the shops and pick some up with the petty cash for that week.
I can also run between the pantry and the store room to get more food from there if we’ve got it. Once the pantry is done I lock up the church, collect all the empty crates and anything that’s left over and take it back up the store room.
Wednesday
I used to wait for the FareShare order to be delivered on a Wednesday but since we’ve started to collect it ourselves I get to have a storeroom based day. There’s always plenty 
of things to sort through whether it’s checking the dates on food, organising food into dietary requirements or going through individual donations. The Cathedral has 3 big plastic boxes where we take donations from the congregation and members of the public so I usually go and empty those to use at St Bride’s pantry tomorrow. If we have had anyone contact us about a donation I try to arrange it for a Wednesday because it’s easier to go out and get it then. In the afternoon I take a van load of stuff to St Bride’s so we’re prepared for the pantry session and then in the evening I head out and collect food from Tesco. We get a text from a couple of the local stores letting us know what they’ve got for us but it’s usually fresh stuff like bakery items, bread and fruit/veg.
Thursday
The pantry at St Bride’s is always the busier of the two. I need to get enough food to St Bride’s to feed between 150 and 200 people.
I do a lot of trips back and forth between the Cathedral and the church to make sure we’ve got enough of everything. While I’m out and about I can also pick up extra essentials if we need them. Once all of the stuff has been dropped off I can do some work in the store room or go and do a pick-up of a donation if there’s one waiting for us. Once the pantry has finished I collect all the empty crates and lock up St Bride’s before heading back to the Cathedral. At the storeroom our bins usually need emptying by now so I take them round to the compactors and sort out the rubbish from the recycling (we try to do our bit!).
Friday
Day off, feet up!
Saturday
Day off, feet up!
Sunday
I don’t work Fridays because I come in on a Sunday afternoon to pick up food. We get another set of texts about food available at Tesco, it’s the fresh stuff again so a lot of bread and some fruit and veg. Once that is put away in the store room I’m done for the week and can start it all over again tomorrow morning!