Cook jobs in Islington, greater london
About School of Food
Set up in March 2020, Hackney School of Food (HSoF) is a food education hub on the grounds of Mandeville Primary School in Clapton, East London. Our mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of children, families, and our community by developing practical skills and confidence in food growing and cooking, from seed to spoon.
In 2023, we became a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC), and have since grown our team, strengthened our governance and expanded our facilities with the addition of a new Garden Room, increasing capacity for workshops, dining and events. We are now well-positioned to grow and diversify our income streams, which enables us to subsidise our schools and community programmes.
Role Overview
This brand-new role offers an exciting opportunity to develop and deliver Hackney School of Food’s commercial and marketing strategy, with a focus on growing key income streams including corporate engagement, paid workshops and events, and venue hire. You will shape how HSoF positions itself externally and how we grow our trading income to subsidise our food education community offer.
While this is currently a freelance role, it is not a transactional position; you’ll collaborate closely with our team, supported by and reporting to our Managing Director. This is a role for someone who can think commercially and creatively and then roll up sleeves to put strategy into action. You’ll believe in our mission and feel passionately about helping Hackney School of Food grow and thrive. Starting as a six-month contract, there is potential for the role to become longer term as the organisation grows.
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Strategy & Income Generation
● Work with the Managing Director to develop and deliver a clear, mission-aligned commercial and marketing strategy.
● Grow earned income streams including corporate engagement, paid workshops and events, and venue hire, helping to sustain and expand schools and community programmes.
● Help shape and refine commercial offers, including pricing and packages, ensuring they are appropriate, achievable and aligned with our values and capacity.
● Contribute to commercial planning by sharing insight on what works and areas of impact.
Relationships and bookings
● Confidently present and explain our commercial offers to key audiences in a way that reflects who we are and why our work matters.
● Proactively identify and chase opportunities for new corporate partners that align with our work.
● Guide enquiries through to bookings, encouraging repeat engagement and longer-term relationships
● Work closely with the wider team to ensure commercial offers are deliverable, well-priced and aligned with organisational capacity.
Marketing & visibility
● Drive work to grow awareness of Hackney School of Food, create compelling externally facing marketing content targeted to the right audiences, across various channels.
● Help capture and share stories, feedback and learning from our commercial activity, support consistent messaging that connects our commercial work to our social impact.
● Conceive, promote and deliver events to market our space, both online and offline.
● Monitor and report on the impact of our external comms, sharing insights with our team to help refine offers, processes and focus over time.
Your experience
Essential
● Genuine passion for Hackney School of Food’s mission and values.
● Experience in income generation, commercial activity and/or promoting events.
● Proven experience in delivering a successful marketing strategy to support income generation.
● An existing network of relationships, or the confidence and credibility to build them, across organisations, businesses or sectors aligned with food, education or social impact.
Desirable
● Experience of working in a start-up, social enterprise or in a food or education context.
● Familiarity with Hackney and East London’s community, cultural or business landscape.
● Confident managing content and organisational activity on social and digital media platforms
● Understanding of how evaluation or feedback can support learning and improvement.
Outputs & Success Measures (First 6 Months – Indicative)
We recognise that Hackney School of Food is at a growth stage and that commercial income is shaped by many factors, including capacity, seasonality and market conditions. These outputs are intended as guiding success measures rather than rigid targets.
By the end of the initial six-month contract, the Commercial & Marketing Lead will have:
● Produced and agreed a clear Commercial & Marketing Delivery Plan for Hackney School of Food, setting priorities for growing our commercial income in a way that aligns with our mission.
● Refined our core commercial offers and packages (e.g. corporate away days, team volunteering, venue hire, paid public workshops), ensuring they are appealing and realistic to deliver.
● Built a healthy pipeline by identifying and actively pursuing 10–15 well-aligned commercial leads, with a focus on quality of fit as well as volume.
● Supported a meaningful increase in commercial enquiries, alongside capturing learning about what kinds of outreach, messaging and partnerships resonate most.
● Created a suite of core marketing assets for commercial activity (e.g. simple decks).
● Delivered at least two targeted promotional pushes (for example around corporate away days), testing approaches and learning what works best.
● Increased the visibility of our commercial offers across agreed channels (e.g. website, LinkedIn, email and partners), with light-touch reporting on reach.
● Supported Hackney School of Food to transition towards a higher volume of commercial bookings, strengthening operational processes and ways of working so growth is sustainable and doesn’t place undue pressure on delivery teams.
● Produced a short end-of-contract reflection summarising what’s worked well, what’s been challenging, and recommendations for the next phase of growth and investment.
Practicalities
Day rate: Subject to experience.
Location: We’re a place-based organisation and our team works on site in Hackney. We are open to exploring more flexible working given the freelance nature of this role but require at least 1 day per week in the office during the first three months.
How to apply: please send a CV and a concise cover letter telling us:
● Why this role and Hackney School of Food appeal to you
● How your experience could support our commercial income generation.
● Your availability and preferred freelance working pattern
Send applications with Commercial & Marketing Lead in subject line to us via email. You'll find our email on our website (Charity Jobs restricts us from including it in this job ad).
Deadline: Wednesday 11 March at 9am.
Hackney School of Food is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Support Mentor
When registering to this job board you will be redirected to the online application form. Please ensure that this is completed in full in order that your application can be reviewed.
Job Title: Support Mentor
Location: This role is based in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), the service is a short walk from Ladbroke Grove (Circle and Hammersmith) station. Unfortunately, this service does not have step free access.
Salary: £27,000
Shift Pattern: 37.5 hours per week Monday to Sunday on a rota which can range between 09:00 - 17:00 or 13:00 - 21:00. You may be required to work outside these hours dependent on service and resident requirements including weekends and bank holidays.
About the Role
We are seeking a compassionate and dedicated Support Mentor to join our team based in RBKC to support our residents who have multiple and complex needs which could include mental health, substance use, homelessness, and/or offending backgrounds. You will support in providing our residents with the support needed to help them overcome their personal barriers, and achieve their goals in a person centred approach. You will work within a residential setting, creating a safe and comfortable space which our residents can call their homes during their time within the service.
Some Key Responsibilities Include:
- Supporting residents with daily tasks who may be facing challenges with complex needs such as mental health, substance use, and offending backgrounds.
- Create tailored support plans through one to one sessions, group sessions, and multi agency meetings
- Holding a caseload, conducting key work sessions which are personable to their needs
- Monitor residents’ wellbeing, carrying out regular welfare checks, and responding to any incidents or emergencies
- Encourage residents to take part in activities and events such as movie nights, cooking evenings, and games nights
- Keep support plans up to date on a regular basis
- Work closely with the rest of the team to provide overall excellent service delivery, this may mean also supporting with their caseloads, and other tasks as necessary
- Carry out general housing management support
About You
We're looking for someone who has a true passion to support those who have multiple and complex needs, with a drive to help support those who suffer with homelessness, mental health, and substance use. You will be able to build rapport and trusting relations in a professional setting, and able to build positive outcomes. You will have an adaptable and flexible approach to helping others, with an understanding that each individual has different levels and types of support needs.
- Experience of working with people of complex backgrounds and/or a good understanding of the sector, particularly around multiple and complex needs
- Ability to show empathy and compassion to our residents, and different challenges they face
- Ability to use, learn and adapt to IT at an intermediate level, including Microsoft and other software programs
- Ability and willingness to show flexibility of working patterns, responding to the needs of the service and residents
- Ability to promote the service and provide outreach-based provision, with an ability to liaise and work effectively in partnership with stakeholders
- Understanding of the different needs people with multiple and complex needs have and be aware of the social marginalisation that can be attached to people who face personal challenges
- Alignment with our values of Ambition, Empowerment, Inclusivity, and Transparency
Please refer to the JDPS attached for more details on the vacancy and our requirements/key criteria.
What we Offer
- 25 days (Full time equivalent) annual leave, increasing with the length of service
- Employer Pension Contribution
- Eligibility to register with Blue Light Discount Card
- Access to discounted tickets for music events, shows, sports and more
- Reflective Practice regular sessions with a therapist provided by an external provider to support Mental Health and Wellbeing at work
- Training and Development, including access to courses, upskilling, and progression plans
- Employee Assistance Programme, including counselling
- Life Assurance Scheme
- Cycle-to-work scheme
- Annual Staff Awards
- EDI Ambassador programme
About Social Interest Group (SIG)
SIG is a not-for-profit organisation providing thousands of people with good-quality support and care in residential, drop-in centres, community floating support settings, probation settings, and hospitals. We do so across London, Brighton, Bedfordshire, Luton, Kent and Liverpool. Our goal is to transform lives through empowering change.
We believe good care and support improves lives with the vision to create healthier, safer, and more inclusive communities. Join us on our mission to empower independence through trauma-informed solutions and dynamic partnerships that keep people out of prison, out of hospital, and off the streets.
Want to know how we work? Watch our short Theory of Change video to see how we support people towards a brighter future: Theory of Change Further details can be found on our website here: Theory of Change - Social Interest Group - Social Interest Group.
Additional Information
Please note that this job advert may close early due to screening applications on an ongoing basis. We advise applying as soon as possible for your application to be taken into consideration at the early stages.
Please note that as part of our process, we complete an enhanced DBS check, some roles may require further vetting. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact us on the details below.
Please note that this will take you through to our Central Administration team, who will then communicate your enquiry with us and we will arrange to call you back.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide sponsorship, please ensure you have full right to work in the UK prior to applying to our positions.
Registered Charity
101 - 500
Empowering independence through trauma-informed solutions and dynamic partnerships that keep people out of prison, out of hospital and off the streets
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Mind In Enfield and Barnet combines over 50 years of experience to improve peoples mental health in Enfield, Barnet and beyond. We are led by lived experience and driven by a passion to support and protect people’s mental health in ways that they want.
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Cafe Worker to assist with the day to day running of our community cafe! This role will support the initial set up and launch, day to day running and ongoing development of our small, friendly community café.
The role includes serving customers, preparing food and drinks and helping to create a welcoming environment for everyone, while maintaining a clean and organised café environment. Also, to support groups in the café and to contribute ideas and effort to help the café grow as a friendly, inclusive and sustainable community space.
The Café offers the following:
- Opening Hours 10.30am – 2.30pm
- Types of food – drinks and healthy snacks throughout, pre-ordered (can be on the day) main meals 12.30pm - 1.30pm
- Types of clients – staff and volunteers, clients on-the-day (from any service), plus current / former / prospective non on-the-day clients as ‘members’
- Pricing – reasonable / community rates (as compared to other local provision), with provision for discounts (e.g. doing a ‘paid for’ activity)
Key Responsibilities Include:
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Taking orders, serving customers, and answering questions about the menu. Being respectful and inclusive to all café visitors and contribute to the development of a safe, welcoming environment.
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Preparation of food and drink.
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Operate the till with card transactions.
- Maintain excellent hygiene and health & safety standards, including clearing and wiping tables, washing up, and ensuring the kitchen and seating areas are clean and tidy.
Food hygiene certificate is desirable. Full training will be provided. This opportunity would suit someone friendly and approachable with excellent customer service skills. We also require the individual to be punctual, reliable and trustworthy and respectful of all community members, including vulnerable groups.
This is a part-time, paid role across 20 hours per week, (Monday to Thursday 10am – 3pm). Please see full attached job description.
Registered Charity
51 - 100
Promoting good mental health and empowering everyone experiencing mental health problems to live with, manage and recover from their condition.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Abbey Community Centre is a vibrant, long-established community charity at the heart of Kilburn, North West London. Every day, we bring people together, reduce isolation and improve health and wellbeing through inclusive activities, services and community support.
We're now looking for an experienced Centre Operations Manager to play a key senior role in ensuring our busy community hub runs safely, smoothly and effectively for the thousands of people who use it each year.
About Abbey Community Centre
Abbey Community Centre works with people of all ages and backgrounds, with a particular focus on older residents and low-income families with young children. We deliver a wide range of activities, services and support including children’s stay-and-play sessions and drop-ins, fitness and wellbeing activities, befriending schemes, digital inclusion support, community meals, warm space provision, food support, volunteering opportunities and specialist outreach.
Alongside this community delivery, we manage a busy public building and a programme of room hire that helps generate income to sustain our work. With a small staff team, over 100 volunteers and many partner organisations, our operations need to be reliable, well-coordinated and people-centred.
The role and its impact
As Centre Operations Manager, you will be the organisation’s senior operational lead on the ground. Working closely with the CEO, you will hold delegated authority for the day-to-day running of the Centre — ensuring the building, people and systems all work together to support high-quality community activity.
This is a hands-on leadership role combining practical problem-solving with people management. You will line manage and help develop operational staff, oversee facilities and contractors, lead on health and safety and operational compliance, support volunteering, and ensure organisational systems and processes function reliably.
Your work will directly enable staff, volunteers and partners to deliver activities and services safely and confidently, and will help ensure Abbey remains a welcoming, accessible and well-run space for the local community.
What you’ll be working on
In this role, you will:
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Oversee daily building operations, maintenance and contractor management
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Lead on health & safety and related compliance, including risk assessments and training
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Line manage & develop operational staff and support a positive, consistent working culture
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Ensure operational policies and procedures are applied effectively in practice
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Support and coordinate volunteering within the centre
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Manage operational budgets and contracts within agreed limits
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Act as a senior member of the management team, deputising for the CEO on agreed matters
Key details
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Location: Abbey Community Centre, Kilburn (NW6 4BJ, London Borough of Camden)
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Hours: 24–28 hours per week (fixed hours agreed at appointment), worked over a minimum of four weekdays
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Core hours: 11.00am–4.00pm (flexibility outside these hours by agreement)
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Contract: Permanent, part-time
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Salary: £40,000–£42,000 per annum (based on a 35-hour full-time equivalent), pro rata for part-time hours
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Annual leave: 30 days pro-rata, rising to 35 days after 5 years’ service (plus bank holidays, pro-rata)
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Pension: NEST pension scheme (if eligible)
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Some evening and occasional weekend working is required
This role could be right for you if…
You are an experienced operational manager who enjoys combining leadership with practical delivery, thrives in a public-facing environment, and wants your work to make a visible difference to a local community. You don’t need to tick every box — we’re interested in your experience, judgement, approach and motivation.
Abbey Community Centre is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and we welcome applications from candidates from a wide range of backgrounds. Reasonable adjustments will be offered throughout the recruitment process.
Registered Charity
11 - 20
To reduce poverty and isolation and improve health, wellbeing and connection through inclusive community activities, services and support.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
Leukaemia UK – Our Charity
We are a ‘small but mighty’ charity with one big ambition: to stop leukaemia devastating lives. Over the next 10 years we want to help save and improve the lives of more people with leukaemia through finding and funding life-changing research and campaigning for change.
Despite progress in recent decades, someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 16 minutes and survival rates are among some of the worst of any cancer. And the physical and psychological impact can be lifelong.
Our current 5-year strategy outlines our plan to increase our investment into ground-breaking world class research and policy development focused on improving access to kinder, more effective diagnosis, treatment and care for leukaemia and other blood cancers. To do this, we have embarked on a period of significant growth, investing strategically to grow our income, profile, influence, and engagement and impact.
We are seeking an experienced, driven and passionate Head of Philanthropy to lead on delivering income from our High Value (HV) audiences and income streams. We are looking for someone with energy and ambition, who can demonstrate strategic leadership to maximise fundraising opportunities across Major Giving, Trusts and Foundations, Special Events and Corporate Partnerships. The post holder will be a key part of the Fundraising Leadership Team, helping to grow our supporter networks, optimise supporter experience and contributing to the development of the overall fundraising growth strategy, at this crucial stage as we complete the current cycle and move into our new 5-year strategy period in 2027.
Team
We are a close-knit team, who are all passionate about Leukaemia UK and putting those affected by the disease at the heart of everything we do. We are all focused on “keeping it real” with pragmatic, practical solutions, as well as ensuring that our charity maximises voluntary income to invest in more life-changing research, so that we can continue to have impact for those with a leukaemia diagnosis.
From us you can expect all the laughter you can handle, as well as great challenge and support. We are all about delivering exceptional supporter experience and making a real difference to people’s lives.
You will be part of an ambitious fundraising team driving growth across the portfolio, so we can fund more leukaemia research and save more lives from this devastating disease. You will report to the Director of Fundraising, working alongside the Head of Public Fundraising, and collaborating across the wider organisation to ensure fundraising aligns with our organisational priorities and values (Bold, Collaborative, Curious) and feels insight-driven, strategic and competitive in a crowded marketplace.
Leukaemia UK and You
In 2025 we invested in growing our fundraising team so that we could fund more life-changing research, to increase our understanding of leukemia as a disease, and accelerate the development of kinder, more effective treatments. This included investment to grow the Philanthropy fundraising team, develop new fundraising products, increase our supporter networks, and build a stronger pipeline. As a result, we have seen significant year-on-year growth for a charity of our size and are keen to maintain this trajectory with the opportunities in front of us.
We are in the final year of our current 5-year organisational strategy cycle and in the process of developing our new 5-year fundraising strategy, so you will be instrumental in bridging the gap, delivering against agreed income targets for 2026 and driving forward new plans into 2027.
Reporting to the Director of Fundraising, the post holder will at times be required to work both strategically and operationally, autonomously and collaboratively, as a critical member of the Fundraising Leadership Team. You will be results-driven with an appetite to innovate and drive continuous improvement, leading to increased conversions, deepened relationships, and long-term high value support to upscale our research programme.
Skills and Experience
- Previous experience of being a Head of Philanthropy, demonstrating strategic leadership with a remit that includes oversight of a broad High Value fundraising portfolio, across multiple income streams.
- Experience of applying the principles of Philanthropy fundraising to develop and nurture a growing pipeline of 5- and 6-figure gift opportunities for supporters able to give at the highest levels.
- Experience of managing engaging Major Giving and Trusts & Foundations fundraising programmes to generate a warm pipeline of 5- and 6-figure gifts.
- Experience of overseeing a Special Events programme, comprising both fundraising and cultivation events.
- Experience of overseeing a Corporate partnerships portfolio and representing the charity at a senior level.
- Demonstrable experience of managing a high-performing team, focussing on creating a culture where people thrive as individuals.
- Strong experience of building effective relationships with internal and external partners, senior stakeholders and suppliers, leading on the key relationships for the charity.
- Strong written and oral communication skills with a real talent for connecting and influencing people at all levels.
- Strong project-management experience, including managing budgets, schedules, creative development, and supplier relationships for fundraising events and campaigns.
- Proven experience of driving effective High Value stewardship programmes to maximise supporter experience.
- Great listening skills and the ability to interpret the needs of individuals, teams, and organisations.
- Ability to think through complex issues and produce evidenced-based judgements.
- Experience of setting and managing annual budgets, monitoring, and reconciling results and financial performance in income and expenditure. Providing associated narratives and monthly reforecasts.
- Working to a wide range of financial and non-financial KPIs set in annual activity plans.
- Ability to work well cross-organisationally, recognising different teams’ priorities and workloads.
- Entrepreneurial and results-led, with the ability to lead programmes of fundraising activity, with strategic, well thought through resourcing to deliver growth.
Knowledge
- Excellent specialist knowledge of the principals and methods underpinning successful Philanthropy fundraising and stakeholder management across Major Giving, Trusts and Corporate partnerships.
- Up-to-date knowledge of current fundraising trends.
- High level knowledge of Salesforce CRM and how best to steward supporters.
- High level knowledge and understanding of charity law in relation to legacy fundraising, GDPR, PECR, data protection and other relevant fundraising regulation.
Role specifics
- Hours: 0.8 FTE are 30 hours per week – days and times to be agreed
- 12 months fixed term contract – maternity cover
- Location: We are very flexible! Whilst our hybrid working policy is a minimum of two days per month in our London office, for this role we would typically expect the role holder to be in the office once a week.
- Salary range £55,000 - £65,000 (FTE)
Applications
If you feel you have the passion for our work and the right mix of experience, skills, energy, and flair to embrace this broad and challenging leadership role and enable our strategy to fly, then we would love you to apply. Please also see the full job description attached to the advert.
- First interviews will be held via Teams Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th March 2026
- Second interviews will be face to face in our London Offices – at 26 Great Queen St, London WC2B 5Bl on either Tuesday 24th or Wednesday 25th March 2026
- We are proud of our benefits – see a summary on our website in the section Work With Us
Application instructions: To minimise unconscious bias, we use anonymous recruitment and are unable to consider direct applications. Please apply via the CharityJob website with your CV and covering letter.
Closing Date: Midnight Sunday 8th March 2026
I look forward to hearing from you!
Holly Hastings-Payne
Director of Fundraising
Registered Charity
21 - 50
Together we can find and fund the research that matters most to people living with blood cancer.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.