The Redeemer

The Common Table
Drop-in Program – How To Help

Our Drop-in Program, The Common Table, provides vital support to those who struggle in our neighbourhood. Although it has grown significantly since it’s early years, it continues to be a grass roots community effort, and still depends heavily on volunteers and donors.

Volunteering: Individuals & Students

Volunteering in a program like ours tends to be as rewarding to our volunteers as to our participants. We invite you to explore what volunteering with us could mean for you. It doesn’t matter whether you attend our church on Sundays; we draw on the help of individuals and groups from our neighbourhood and beyond. If you’re willing to bring a team-oriented, positive and non-judgemental attitude, we’d be delighted to talk with you and have you apply to join our team.

Ideally, we’re seeking volunteers who can commit with some regularity: typically one morning a week (8 or 8:30am-12:30pm, although we can usually accommodate other arrangements if necessary. Volunteers usually start in the kitchen, helping us with food preparation; however, there are a variety of opportunities, including welcoming and working with our participants. We seek to support our participants in a variety of ways, so we are looking for those that can help with administration, strategic partnerships, grant applications, employment research and more. Let us know your skills and what you’re interested in. If you’re in need of volunteer hours for a program (school, Ontario Works, etc.), we are happy to provide letters of confirmation.

Volunteer Application Form - The Common Table

Please answer the questions down below to apply to be a volunteer at The Common Table.

Are you interested in helping on site? If so, please know that you must participate in an orientation, trial shifts, ongoing educational and training seminars, and be subject to a police check and COVID vaccine requirement. Also, you MUST be available during weekdays, as our program operates Monday through Friday, 8 AM - 1 PM. Generally volunteers help one day per week.(Required)
What on-site opportunities are you open to helping with? Check all that apply. If you are interested in helping off-site, skip this question.
Would you be willing to work on special computer-based projects at home? (you would need access to a computer, be comfortable doing research, creating documents, etc.)(Required)
Would you be willing to make sandwiches from home? (you would need a clean working area, proper refrigeration space, and the ability to purchase and donate the supplies needed for 20-30 sandwiches at a time)(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Group Education Programs

The best way to understand the realities of inequity and people’s hardships starts with listening. We take a robust, holistic approach to our community education programs:, we offer a variety of workshops, immersion experiences, empathy training, and poverty education options to university, high school and corporate groups, as well as ongoing educational workshops within the Redeemer and larger neighbourhood community. If you would like to learn more, please contact Bill Ryan at 416.922.4948 x215, or send him a note.

Partners

The Common Table seeks to do a lot with a little. Besides the generous time of hands-on volunteers, we depend on partnerships and financial support from local organizations. From legal services to in-kind donations of foods, we invite you to think about how your organization can help us achieve our goals and give back to the neighbourhood. We would love to hear from you.

Donors

The Common Table depends on financial donations to keep supporting those in our community. We are continually grateful for the support we receive from individuals and local organizations, but we can always use more help. If you’d like to donate specifically to our Drop-in Program, please let us know.