Volunteering at Everybody Eats is fun, flexible and a great way to get to know your local community. It also provides an extremely important service - we simply couldn't open our doors each day without our fantastic volunteers.
No experience necessary or long-term commitment required, all you need to do is sign up via this website, set your preferences and once your profile is verified you can start requesting shifts. Easy as!
Join the 7000+ people who are already part of our volunteer community.
At each restaurant, we offer two main shifts for every evening we are open. Volunteer shifts are typically posted around one month in advance and can be requested through your volunteer profile. Don't forget to join the Auckland or Wellington Volunteer Facebook page too!
Afternoon Kitchen Prep Shift: 12pm - 4pm
Join a small group of 4-6 volunteers working alongside our Head Chefs to prepare food for the evening menu. Tasks include sorting vegetables, chopping, peeling and assisting with cooking and baking. It’s a relaxed and social environment, with plenty of opportunities to learn new cooking skills, as well as how to reduce waste in the kitchen.
Evening Service Shift: 5:30pm- 8:30pm (one 4:30pm start also available)
This shift is split into two teams: Front of House (FOH) and Kitchen Service. It can get busy, especially at the start, so be ready to work hard and stay on your feet. FOH Team: Greet diners, serve food, water and chat with diners. Kitchen Team: Run the pass, plate meals or wash dishes (be part of the infamous Splash Crew!). Everyone enjoys a meal together during the evening and helps tidy up at the end.
We’ll start the evening with a quick briefing to set you up for success, and new volunteers will be paired with seasoned ones whenever possible. Wear comfy, closed-toe shoes and tie long hair back. Kitchen volunteers, bring an apron if you have one; FOH servers, please wear black if possible—we'll provide a branded apron for the night.
Historically we've tried to accommodate groups where we can. However, due to a major increase in group volunteering enquiries, the significant amount of extra admin support required for group bookings, and higher last-minute drop-out rate which can impact service, we have had to rethink our approach.
From January 2025, friends and casual groups who would like to volunteer together must all register as individuals and request the same shift. As part of the shift request process, add a note in the space provided to say you are part of a group (include a matching group name) and would like to be accepted all together. When the shift request is reviewed by our team, if possible we will accept everyone onto the same shift. If we can't fit everyone in, none of the group will be accepted, and you can try a different shift or split into smaller groups (a great option is for part of the group to volunteer and the others to come in for dinner!).
We are generally only able to accept groups of up to 2-3 on an afternoon prep shift, and up to 4-6 on an evening shift to ensure there is a mix of lesser and more experienced people together.
If you are part of a registered community group you can reach out to volunteer@everybodyeats.nz for assistance.
Corporate groups
We offer competitively priced daytime Cooking-For-A-Cause team building experiences, and evening restaurant takeover opportunities for corporate groups. Contact susan@everybodyeats.nz for more info.
Employees from the same company looking to volunteer informally together can use the individual or group booking method shown above.
There are sometimes other volunteering opportunities at Everybody Eats. For example, to help with fundraising, professional services or technical skills. If you have a particular skill or service you can offer the organisation pro bono, please get in touch via volunteering@everybodyeats.nz.
