Category Archives: Volunteer stories

Meet a volunteer: Megan

I was introduced to SFTS by my friend Jane about two years ago and have been a regular member of mighty Monday night shift ever since.

Considering the shelter is essentially a big shed in the middle of an industrial estate in central London it is pretty miraculous how homely and relaxed it always feels. By about 6.30pm most of the guests have arrived and not long after we are all doing what many families around the country do every evening at home; sitting down to dinner, chatting, laughing and arguing about what to watch on the TV.

It is the ability of the shelter to create such an atmosphere that makes it so special and successful. The recognition that our guests need practical help, but also, a place to relax, feel safe where they can receive a little extra care and support seems to make all the difference.

Meet a volunteer: Phoebe

Phoebe was introduced to the shelter by her dancer friend, Andrew, who also volunteers.

She has been with us for six months and is proud to newly have become a key worker and looks forward to hopefully being a useful ally to the guests. She also really enjoys working with the other volunteers, who she finds are a very special group of no-nonsense, diverse people. She is in awe of Sheila and Louis, who set up and run the shelter – and wishes that the world was full of more people who had their energy and balls. She is proud (and a bit surprised, never liking doing her own) to be a demon bed-maker, and lives in fear of being called up for cooking duty. She salutes all the chefs who each night conjure up, from what can be eclectic ingredients, a meal that is happily wolfed down by guests and volunteers together.

She feels absolutely privileged to be a part of the shelter community which does vital work and where at any one time – and often all at the same time – there can be a noisy pool game, intense philosophy class, industrial macaroni cheese production, important life-changing conversations and honky-tonk piano playing.

Meet a volunteer: Anthony

Anthony doesn’t like to remember how he came to be homeless, the memories are too painful. Besides, it is all behind him now, in his past. For the last year he has been working as an administrator for a film production company, a role he got through the shelter.

Now he comes back each Monday to work as a volunteer, using his own experience to help people stuck in similar situations. “The people at the shelter taught me never to give up on myself,” he says. “It took the pressure off me, gave me the space and time to get myself together.” He says that’s a rare luxury. Most shelters in London make people move on after a fixed amount of time. “The shelter gave me the opportunity to help myself. If it wasn’t for that place, I could be dead now.”

Meet a volunteer: Cookie

“I guess it’s the guests that make volunteering so worthwhile. I can be in bad mood after a hard day at work but as soon as I step inside the shelter, I can’t take the smile off my face.

“I did the overnights for over a year and I loved it; I wanted to become more involved in the running of the shelter so asked if I could become a key worker. I found this amazingly satisfying and I feel I’ve learned so much from the guests and the other volunteers.

“It started me thinking about a career change and I’m just about to start work with a major London charity where I’ll be working with ex offenders. Shelter from the Storm has helped me grow as a person and I can’t wait to start my new job.”

Meet some volunteers: the Savages

Husband and wife team extraordinaire, the Savages, cook for us here at SFTS on alternate Mondays and have done for the last two years. We spoke to Sasha, as she took a breather from making dinner for forty, to tell us about her experiences volunteering at the shelter.

For her it’s the welcoming atmosphere and sense of mutual respect between volunteers and guests alike that she enjoys most. It’s also an opportunity to meet the considerable challenges of cooking for a large number of hungry guests, and spending quality time with her ‘Monday night family’ of dedicated sous-chefs. Both she, and husband Richard, are convinced that the work we do here is essential in finding opportunities for our guests and providing them with a much needed safe haven from the harsh realities of homelessness in London.

Meet a volunteer: Max

“I first got involved with Shelter from the Storm as I go travelling every summer and come back thinking I’m going to change the world but never actually get round to doing anything. So a friend of mine Maddy suggested coming to the shelter and I loved it.

“I work Monday nights, mainly throwing biscuits at other volunteers and getting in the way, and occasionally carrying things about if Sheila shouts at me to do something. I’ve tempered my ambitions to become head chef – turns out I’m better qualified as reserve deep fat fryer cooker and chopping stuff. Whoever cooks it, I take the credit when it’s served. Recently I’ve started teaching English to guests as well, mainly just helping them with conversation – which more accurately means I just talk about my love life and they try to understand it.

“I enjoy it more and more each time I go – both getting to know the volunteers (it’s widely agreed by the Monday night team that the Monday night team are the best) but also the guests. It’s opened my eyes to what homelessness actually means and changed my perceptions completely. It’s much more complicated than you think.

“What I’d tell someone who’s interested in volunteering at the shelter? If you’re really interesting and fun come on a Monday night. If you’re weird but still want to help, then come some other time! Seriously though, I tend to think that volunteering in whatever capacity is only sustainable if you enjoy it as well as helping others – and the atmosphere in the Shelter means you do both. I always look forward to going.”

Meet a volunteer: Kate Riley

“London is an especially awful place to feel lonely. I found Shelter from the Storm when I was looking for somewhere to volunteer in my neighborhood – somewhere to feel like part of a community.

“And while chopping vegetables and washing dishes, I got to know not only the other volunteers, but the guests as well, many of whom I recognized from around Islington and still see even after they have left the shelter.

“It’s a truly local labor of love. Shelter from the Storm runs on good, simple work: making supper, feeding people, and listening to their stories. It feels easier to say “yes” to others there; it feels easier be kind.”

Meet a volunteer: Jane Third

My name is Jane, I’m 32 years old and I have been volunteering for Shelter from the Storm for around four years. When I’m not volunteering I run an independent record company. I have always aimed to divide my time between music and social work but it’s not always easy to find a way.

Throughout my 20s I organised a number of fundraising events for Crisis and Shelter, but never managed to feel like I was truly learning anything about homelessness or making a difference in a meaningful way to me. I discovered Shelter from the Storm through a friend who volunteered there and I knew straight away from my first shift on new years day, a little worse for wear, that it was exactly what I had been looking for: non-judgemental, non-bureaucratic and open minded. Shelter from the Storm has no brand or ethos other than to care for people with nowhere to turn.

I work the saturday evening shift from 5pm to 9pm and generally either help out in the kitchen cooking and serving dinner or just mill around catching up with the guests and folding the odd duvet cover. I’m also involved in the fundraising side. We have some great partners over the years – Mother Advertising Agency, Paramount, Mason and Taylor, the Duke of Cambridge – and we have been lucky to have some of the best musical and comedy talent in the country give up their time for us in the past. Hopefully this will continue to grow as we rely entirely on donations for our existence.

To new volunteers i would say: this is not a place to come to be badged up and told what to do. The volunteers ARE the shelter – if you see something which could be improved, don’t think that it’s someone else’s responsibility, just get on with it. It’s a very empowering feeling and it will change how you interact with the world in your day to day life.

Meet a volunteer: Elena Salvoni

Earlier this week, the shelter had a very special volunteer come talk with the guests and spread her famous charm and limitless warmth: the Queen of Soho, Elena Salvoni.

At 92, she only just finished working full time at the restaurant that still bears her name, Elena’s L’Etoile, last year.

Now, she visits the shelter regularly, sharing the abundant hospitality she’s renowned for and swapping stories with guests. And what stories she has.

She began her career as a seamstress but had to stop when the work dried up after the second world war and material stocks were low. Following advice from her friends, but without any experience, she went for a job at Café Bleu at a time when only men waited in restaurants. In her first week, when her manager saw she had a gift for making customers feel at home, she became a waitress and stayed on for five years, moving over to legendary Soho restaurant Bianchi’s after a kitchen fire put Café Bleu out of action. At Bianchi’s – on the site of where Little Italy is now – she worked for another 30 years, rising to become London’s first female Maitre’d and only leaving briefly during that time to have her daughter and son Louie (our co-founder) 10 years later.

While she never wanted to own her own restaurant, she loved her job, making lifelong friends which included some of London’s most famous residents, such as John Hurt, Paul Schofield and Melvyn Bragg who, many years later, presented her with one of her seven national industry awards. The life achievement award from Caterer and Hotelkeeper for services to the industry was presented to her by James Nesbitt. She again became the first woman to achieve this honour.

Another of her old customers, Nick Lander, who, in 1985, had just invested in L’Escargot took Elena for dinner to ask her to work for him there. She’d just retired at 65 but she still agreed, saying she’d give it a year – she stayed 10, moving then to the eponymous Elena’s L’Etoile.

Even though she has now officially retired at 92, she remains unstoppable, hosting a lunch every second Wednesday of the month at Little Italy where all her old customers come back to visit. For the past year, she also visits the shelter on many a Sunday evening, where she seems just as comfortable as she did running those legendary Soho restaurants. Her gift for making people feel at home goes a long way at the shelter: the queen reigns on.