Recently I had the pleasure of volunteering with Rise Bakery to help promote their delicious brownies outside Spitalfields market. We had a little stall set up (decorated with balloons of course) and from there we gave out some brownie tasters to the extremely eager public (no one turns down free brownies!) along with information about the amazing work that Rise do!
Luckily the sun was out so lots of people from the offices came out side for their lunch break, some from near-by offices even said that they had seen us from the office window and so had come down to check out what we were up to!
One of my favourite recurring situations was when groups of very serious looking, suited-work folk would pass and one or two of the group would look so longingly at the brownies but under peer pressure, would pass us by with the rest of their group. Oh the pain in their eyes.
I had multiple chats with passing Londoners throughout the day and it was so lovely to experience the amazing level of interest which many of them had towards Rise. Some even described situations in their own life or of someone they knew, where a social enterprise like Rise would have made a really positive impact on them. I think it’s fair to say that I had a pretty inspiring day and would recommend volunteering with Rise or Providence Row to anyone else!
Right now Rise Bakery is looking for delivery assistants, get involved!