All trips are slightly different. However, from our experience of running and leading these volunteer trips, below you'll find a good idea of what to expect.
Volunteers meet at the warehouse and sign in for 9.30am.
Following the morning briefing given by a long-term team leader, and completion of site registration, you will be given a guided tour of the warehouse and kitchen. Then you will work alongside experienced volunteers in a variety of ways - washing and chopping ingredients, packing up bags of food, sorting clothes and tent donations, making urns of tea, preparing other services ready to distribute and many more jobs dependent on needs at the time.
The warehouse has plenty of parking and is situated in an industrial business park surrounded by businesses such as mills, bakeries, and offices. The warehouse has kitchen facilities, toilets, free tea/coffee/cake.
After lunch (provided by the charity) we continue helping in the kitchen, or receive a further briefing before heading out to meet refugees sheltering in the Calais and Dunkirk area. We will help distribute clothing, blankets or food, provide hot drinks, and set up services such as bike repairs and hair cutting. At the end of the day we return to the warehouse, unload the vans and join in a debrief before leaving for our hostel.
This may all sound like lots of travel, hard work, difficult working environments - and yes it is, but along the way all our volunteers also have an amazing and inspiring time.
If you can spare a weekend and the cost of the trip then we will organise everything else to get you to Calais, so you can see for yourself the importance of direct support and giving and the difference you can make.
All donated funds are directed to the grassroots charities on the ground helping refugees in Calais and used for the most urgent requirements and those most desperately in need. If you would rather purchase an item of need please go to our shop and see exactly where you money goes.
