by Ivan Deidda
On the 14th February 2025 a group of 8 volunteers from Climpsons cafe, roastery and office came together to spend the day helping with a busy breakfast service at Whitechapel Mission.
The Whitechapel Mission has been helping those who are sleeping rough since 1876, meeting the specific needs of each individual who walks through their doors, whether this be with food, shelter, clothing or medical care. They are volunteer-led with a small team of core staff who organise their daily free breakfast and other support services including a day centre with hot showers, advice and more. Before 2020 they were seeing approximately 200-250 people a day. Now they are seeing approximately 350 people a day with as many as 600 people using their services on some days.
Everyday they offer a full cooked breakfast at 8am. Here’s what we got up to volunteering for the day.
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We started our day at the Whitechapel Mission at 5:45 AM, where, after being briefed about the day by the regular team and being divided into roles, we began preparing breakfast. Some of us were in charge of the kitchen, and the rest were split between the hot drinks station and the cereals station (sugar power!) The kitchen is large and very functional—it has to be, because the Whitechapel Mission serves around 450 breakfasts on a busy day.
The breakfast consists of: bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, and either brown or white bread. They also offer a selection of cereals or weetabix with milk. Black tea is probably the most requested hot drink, followed by instant coffee and hot chocolate.
The doors open at 6:00 AM for hot drinks. At 8:00 AM, the pass opens, and we start serving food to the group. Today, Tash is in charge of the eggs, Matt manages the washing-up station, Max and Ayane take care of the cereals, Ari & Grace serve the breakfast at the pass, and Jeremy and I manage the hot drinks station. This station also serves towels, razors for shaving, soap, deodorants, moisturizers, and socks for those that need them.
The next two hours went incredibly smoothly (we're Climposon and we have a bit of a background in hospitality between us), and we received compliments here and there for our professionalism on the job! Some of the visitors are regulars, while others are new; some want to have a chat, and some just want to eat and sleep for a while in a warm place. Some are very hungry, and others are just there for a nice hot drink. This service is here to help every individual that walks through the door.
At 10:00 AM, after serving around 250 breakfasts, the shutters come down, and it's our time to eat something and have a delayed breakfast ourselves. After a short break to recharge, it's time for cleaning, which, with our large team, only takes about an hour to complete. Once everything is clean and shiny, we sit down for a quick chat about how the day went and how we felt about it. A general feeling of satisfaction emerged from the conversation, and everyone seemed happy to have been involved.
It was a different kind of morning for our team, giving back a bit of our time to this unique reality of East London. We are proud to support the Whitechapel Mission who, every day of the year, provide the first meal of the day, showers, and advice to all those in need across our part of the city.
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At Climpsons we offer annual paid volunteering hours to all of our staff. This gives us a chance to give back to our local community and apply our unique hospitality skillset with those who need it most. We’re booked in for our next volunteering date at Whitechapel Mission on the 9th May this year.
For more information on Whitechapel Mission head to their website where you can find out about supporting their daily work or becoming a volunteer yourself.
