Luton Foodbank Trustee Role (Trustee Week 2022)

Trustees are the people who lead a charity and decide how it is run. They are the key decision makers in a charity and use their life experience and skills to help the charity to achieve their aims.

All charities need a minimum of three trustees. You may see these charity positions advertised as director, board member, governor or committee member.  All these titles are trustees and the responsibilities are the same.  They are unpaid positions (although reasonable expenses may be claimed) and as such, all charity trustees are volunteers.

Being a Trustee can be challenging at times yet as you can read below its also an incredibly rewarding role. We spoke with Liz, a trustee for Luton Foodbank and she has told us that:

When I retired in 2018, I was looking for an organisation that I could give some of my time to, on a voluntary basis. I was attracted to Luton Food Bank as it had been running for five years and was well-established as an important part of the community of the town, providing much needed support to local residents. The charity has a clear vision and purpose and the day-to-day organisation remains true to the mission. My role consists of several different dimensions and for anyone who joins as a Trustee there is the possibility to get involved in a hands-on way for those who wish. As a Trustee, I am responsible, with other Trustees for making strategic decisions and monitoring the work of the Food Bank to ensure that it remains financially sound and true to its stated mission. As a member of the Senior Management Team, I am involved in more of the day-to-day management of the Food Bank and, as a volunteer who drives the van and helps out in the warehouse and at distribution centres, I interact with the volunteers and clients and this provides me with a very good understanding of how the FB operates. I find all of these roles rewarding and challenging and I would thoroughly recommend Luton Food bank to anyone who, like me, is looking for an opportunity to give something back to the community.

If you're interested in volunteering with Liz and the team at Luton Foodbank you can check our there Trustee role on our Simply Connect system here.

You can view the full list of Trustee roles from organisations across Bedfordshire here.