Baked with love

Taking a career break can be a time of uncertainty — but also opportunity. In this blog, we share the inspiring story of one of our amazing volunteers who joined our community café to hone his baking skills. What started as a way to gain experience quickly turned into the first step toward landing his dream job as a professional baker.

 

Mark Busby, our Head of Operations sat down with Peter to find out how volunteering was as beneficial for him as it was for us.

 

Peter: I volunteered at Café in the Park while taking a career break. I was doing an evening class in baking and was keen to apply my skills. My wife and I had visited the café and found it so welcoming, not to mention the great coffee! I approached Mark with the idea of producing tasty homemade treats in house. I spent one morning a week making brownies, muffins, cookies and flapjacks alongside the team. It's a lovely place to spend time and everyone is so friendly. I'm now studying patisserie full time and working in a bakery!

 

Mark: Peter's volunteering was a real success story of what volunteering can do for both the organisation and the individual. Peter brought ideas and enthusiasm on how to improve the café sweet treat offer and produced some incredible home-made products — his brownies are incredible! Peter also passed on his knowledge and enthusiasm to the wider team which has seen his recipes for cakes, biscuits and muffins become permanent additions to the menu. Volunteering with CFC gave Peter insight into how baking in a home kitchen transitions to a commercial kitchen. I was thrilled that he secured his first paid role with a popular Altrincham bakery up the road and while it was sad to see his volunteering come to an end, I reminded him: once part of the CFC family, you're always part of the CFC family!