KITCHEN PORTER NEEDED!

SQUASH IS LOOKING TO FOR A KITCHEN PORTER TO JOIN OUR CAFE KITCHEN TEAM TO SUPPORT OUR BUSY VEGETARIAN & VEGAN CAFE!

This is short term contract from November 2025 until end of March 2026

PLEASE EMAIL YOUR C.V. DETAILING YOUR RELATED EXPERIENCE AND WHY YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK AT SQUASH TO becky@squashliverpool.co.uk

Deadline for applications is 6th November

Pay: Real Living Wage £12.60 per hour

Hours per week: approximately 22 hours a week including weekends

Place of work: Squash, 112-114 Windsor Street, Toxteth, Liverpool, L8 8EQ

Selected candidates will be offered paid trail shifts. To find out more about Squash and meet the team, drop by on Saturday 1st November 10am – 11am.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Reports to: Kitchen Manager

Role: The Kitchen Porter will play a vital role in keeping & maintaining the Squash café and kitchen a clean, organised and welcoming space.

Key Tasks

  • Wash, clean and store kitchen equipment, dishes and utensils
  • Clear cafe tables and keep cafe environment clean and tidy during and after service
  • Keep the kitchen, storage areas and back of house spaces clean, tidy and well-organised.
  • Empty and sort waste, recycling and compost, following Squash’s environmental principles.
  • Help receive and store deliveries safely and efficiently.
  • Support the kitchen team with basic food preparation (e.g. washing and chopping vegetables).

This job includes physical work including lifting heavy items and mopping.

The Kitchen Porter will:

  • Maintain high standards of food hygiene and safety at all times.
  •  Work with the Kitchen Manager and kitchen team to ensure smooth service.
  • Uphold Squash’s ethos & values and contribute to a positive, caring and inclusive workplace culture.

Person Specification

Essential

·         Reliable, punctual and hardworking.

·         Able to work efficiently in a busy kitchen environment.

·         Can work independently and as part of a team

·         Commitment to cleanliness, hygiene and food safety.

·         Willingness to learn and take direction.

·         Enthusiasm for Squash’s community values and sustainable approach to food.

Desirable

·         Experience working in a café, restaurant or community kitchen.

·         Basic food hygiene certificate (training will be given).

·         Interest in sustainable food, growing or cooking.

What Squash offers

·         A friendly, inclusive and creative workplace.

·         Opportunities for training and development.

·         Staff meals during shifts.

·         Support to grow your skills and confidence in a community food setting

About Squash

Squash Liverpool C.I.C. is a pioneering, award-winning community organisation, rooted and home-grown on Windsor Street, Liverpool 8. Since 2010 we have been making positive social change and prioritising wellbeing for all in our neighbourhood through participatory food and art practices including food-growing and cooking, arts and crafts, and through our community food business; an ingredients-based food shop, community café & catering service.

We are a Community Interest Company (CIC) – a not-for-profit membership organisation that is accountable to our community and we work alongside local residents embracing food as an essential tool to improve health and well-being.

SATEMENT ON SQUASH WITHDRAWING FROM BBC MAKE A DIFFERENCE AWARDS

25TH SEPTEMBER 2025

Squash Liverpool C.I.C were recently shortlisted for the BBC’s Make a Difference Awards 2025 in the Green/Environmental category. After discussion with our board and team, we have decided to withdraw from the awards process and ceremony taking place this evening.

Alongside many in our community, we at Squash are deeply concerned about the BBC’s ongoing biased reporting on the genocide in Gaza/Occupied Palestinian Territories, and as such we cannot align ourselves with the BBC.

The Centre for Media Monitoring’s 2025 report ‘concludes that the BBC is systematically biased against Palestinians in Gaza war coverage. Analysis of 35,000+ pieces of BBC content shows Israeli deaths given 33 times more coverage, per fatality, and significantly more emotive language.’

Squash believes in a Free Palestine and we will continue to raise awareness of and outrage about the genocide of the people of Palestine by Israel. Our solidarity work has included sharing information, community walks, multi-lingual poster making (‘Call for a Permanent Ceasefire’ & ‘Food is a Human Right’), seed-plantings, creating spaces for community members to share thoughts, feelings, knowledge & information about the atrocities taking place, and fundraising for Medical Aid for Palestinians, All Our Relations and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees/Local Seed Bank in Palestine via Exeter Seed Bank at our regular seasonal events.

Please get in touch if you’d like to get involved. Our next gathering is Samhain on Saturday 1st November.

Free Palestine.

Big love to our Habibti Liverpool sisters who have also withdrawn from the awards.

Images:

1. Palestinian flag in Grapes Community Garden. Photo by Angelica Vanasse 

2. Food is a Human Right poster campaign 2025. Project by Clare Owens & Corbin LaMont. Design by Corbin LaMont

3. Tears/water drops embroidery made during community workshop for Lughnasadh with artist Tabitha Moses. Photo by Angelica Vanasse

4. Summer Solstice dawn procession 2025 on Windsor St. Photo by Clare Owens

5. Squash building w/posters. Photo by Clare Owens

6. Call for Permanent Ceasefire poster campaign 2024. Design by Corbin LaMont

7. Solidarity tablecloth 2023. Lead artist Tabitha Moses with 30+ community embroiders. Photo by Clare Owens

8. Grapes Community Garden sign including Landworkers Alliance Farmers Against Forced Starvation campaign poster. Photos by Clare Owens 

SAMHAIN

SATURDAY 1ST NOVEMBER

AT SQUASH 2-4PM. DUSK WALK TO THE OAK 4-5PM

An invitation to:

  • Gather in around the fire
  • Remember our loved ones
  • Gently prepare for winter
  • Walk together towards the dark half of the year

As we enter into the darkest weeks of the year, we invite you to gather in together around the fire to celebrate Samhain; the end and beginning of the Celtic New Year.

Add the names of lost loved ones to the altar, be they ancestors, family members, friends or those we’ve never met. Honour the people of Palestine, living and dead. Taste warming mulled apple & fire cider. Have a chat through your hopes, worries, griefs & joys.

Bring something to burn.

“Samhain is upon us, marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, a time of cold and darkness when the veil between the living and the spirit world is believed to be at its thinnest. The word “Samhain” is derived from old Irish and means “summer’s end.” It is a time to bid farewell to the warmth and light of summer and prepare for the introspective and cold months ahead.” from Landworkers Alliance

We will be collecting for All Our Relations; community-led aid project in Gaza.

PHOTOS BY JUDE MCLOUGHLIN. ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANGELICA VANASSE.

EQUINOX SEED SAVE

SUNDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER 12 – 3PM

‘Seed is not just the source of life. It is the very foundation of our being.’
-Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and global seed sovereignty advocate.

On this Autumn Equinox eve, join in our annual seed-saving session led by local gardeners who steward the Toxteth Seed Library. Help us clean, sort and pack seeds after this bountiful summers growth.

Our annual seed share is a really important event in the Squash growing year. We’re passionate about seeds. We’ve been building the Toxteth Seed Library since 2010 – a fundamental element of our 100 Year Vision for Windsor Street and neighbourhood. Come and meet the Squash gardeners, who are the seed keepers and caretakers of this great legacy.

Following the attack on UAWC Local Palestine Seed Bank on July 31st this year by Israeli forces, we will be collecting donations for the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (a Palestinian non-governmental organisation dedicated to supporting farmers and promoting sustainable agricultural practices) to support their vital work restoring and protecting remaining seed sources in Palestine.

Drop-in. Free / by donation.

HARVEST AUCTION FUNDRAISER

SATURDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER

CAFE OPEN 5PM, AUCTION 6-9PM

This year we’re celebrating our 10th annual Harvest Auction Fundraiser! Come along for a magical eve of comedy & fun, win some locally grown and made harvest delights, and help raise funds for communities close to our heart, including:

If you can’t make the auction but would like to donate please do so here.

Growers & Cooks!

Have you grown something you’re really proud of this year? Or made an amazing jam? Donations of home or allotment-grown fruit & veg and preserves, ferments, or other delicious homemade seasonal treats can be dropped of at Squash on Saturday 13th, Wednesday 17th, Thursday 18th, Friday 19th between 10am and 4pm.

Harvest Competition!

The categories for our annual harvest produce competition are:

  • BEST WONKY FRUIT OR VEG
  • BEST SQUASH / PUMPKIN
  • BEST PRESERVE (e.g. jam/chutney/relish/ferment/honey- entries require a whole jar and a sample for judges)
  • BEST DRESSED AT THE HARVEST AUCTION (get your best Autumn kecks on!)
  • BEST IN SHOW

If you would like to enter, please note this on the Auction Lot Entry form when you drop off your donation for the auction. Please note your donation may be auctioned or be part of the tombola or raffle that evening.

For more info or to donate an auction lot email Rachael admin@squashliverpool.co.uk or call 0151 7077897.

PHOTOS OF HARVEST AUICTION 2024 BY ABDULLRHMAN HASSONA WITH OUR PATRON ANDI OLIVER

LUGHNASADH FIRE, GRAIN & SOLIDARITY

FRIDAY 1ST AUGUST 12 NOON – 2PM

GRAPES COMMUNITY FOOD GARDEN, WINDSOR STREET, NEXT DOOR TO TOXTETH TV L8 1XE

This Lughnasadh; the Gaelic fire festival marking the first grain & fruit harvest, we’re coming together in the garden. It’s important to be together, now more than ever. At this time of celebrating the abundance of the summer season here on Windsor Street and in Liverpool, we acknowledge the forced starvation of the people of Gaza by Israel backed up by our own government. Not in our name. See below and here for Landworkers Alliance ‘Farmers Against Forced Starvation’ campaign.

FOOD IS A HUMAN RIGHT

We’ll be offering up our solidarity, holding space for conversation, grief & hope, making art and breaking bread in honour of Gaza.

Come and be:

  • together around the fire
  • restful in nature
  • held by your community

Come along and share:

  • your hopes and fears at the ‘Round the Table Talk/Draw/Feel/Write’
  • your own harvest offering of the season for the Lughnasadh altar
  • ‘Plant chats’ – have a talk with a plant, you’ll be glad you did…

Come and make:

FREE/BY DONATION. WE’LL BE COLLECTING FOR ALL OUR RELATIONS, a UK-based non-profit supporting 15 displaced families & 4 community-led food aid projects across Gaza.

This Lughnasadh we also love and remember the great poet Andrea Gibson who passed away on 14th July.

PHOTOS BY ANGELICA VANASSE, CLARE OWENS, JUDE MCLOUGHLIN & LUCY HUNTER. ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANGELICA VANASSE

COOK NEEDED – SHORT TERM COVER

Squash is looking for a talented and enthusiastic freelance cook to support our food team from mid/late June until mid August 2025. We are a community cafe based on Windsor Street in Liverpool 8 with a reputation for delicious vegetarian & vegan food. We also have an award-winning shop that sells our own food products.

We’re interested in a cook with experience working in a busy kitchen and who’s confident preparing vegetarian and vegan food.

Details:

  • 24 hours per week, on days between Tuesdays and Sundays, 9am – 5pm
  • Regular weekend availability essential
  • Freelance rate: £13 per hour – we are Real Living Wage Employer

Selected candidates will be offered a paid trial shift sometime in week of 16th June.

To apply, please send your CV and a short letter of introduction explaining why you’d like to work with us at Squash to becky@squashliverpool.co.uk by midday Wednesday 11th June.

Squash Liverpool
112–114 Windsor Street, Liverpool, L8 8EQ
We look forward to hearing from you!

OPEN GARDEN SUNDAY

SUNDAY 22ND JUNE 1-5PM

SQUASH KITCHEN GARDEN, SQUASH BUILDING, WINDSOR STREET, L8 8EQ

AND…

SQUASH GRAPES COMMUNITY FOOD GARDEN, NEXT DOOR TO TOXTETH TV, WINDSOR ST, L8 1XE

On solstice Sunday, come and relax in our lush Squash gardens, meet local gardeners & cooks and enjoy delicious food & drinks as part of the National Open Garden Scheme Canning & Toxteth Gardens group. Visit 8 gardens for just £6 including fellow community gardens Granby Winter Garden & Pakistan Association Wellbeing Garden plus private gardens in the area. See https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/46833/canning-and-toxteth-gardens for more information.

We’re looking forward to welcoming you! The Squash café & shop will be open from 10-5pm for delicious summer refreshments.

PLANTING & DANCING

Squash Celebration Day & Bealtaine Eve

WEDNESDAY 30th April  12-2pm & 6-8pm

Our annual celebration of all things Squash this year falls on Bealtaine Eve so that means planting Squash seeds and dancing…as well as eating, chatting and gathering around the fire to mark the start of summer!

Bealtaine is the Gaelic/Irish crossfire festival next point of the 8-Fold year, sitting half-way between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, marking the beginning of summer. At Squash, we celebrate this a potent time, when the spring sap is rising, by mixing up more traditional and contemporary folk elements & customs including Maypole dancing*, altar making & nature crafting.

*At lunchtime and in the evening, join in Maypole dancing in the garden and on the street! No experience necessary, just enthusiasm for this traditional fertility folk dance around the Squash mini-Maypole with live music from local band Kaloco (evening set).

12-2pm at the Grapes Community Garden

  • garden Maypole with Willy on the squeezebox
  • plant many varieties of squash seeds
  • add to the communal altar
  • make a headdress
  • enjoy fresh-picked herb tea & spring foods

6-8pm at Squash

  • street Maypole with Kaloco band
  • gather around the Bealtaine fire
  • street drawing
  • make a crosh cuirn; a Manx protective charm, traditionally crafted on Bealtaine eve
  • add your Bealtaine hopes to the altar
  • delicious spring menu available in the cafe

SPRING EQUINOX AT SQUASH

THURSDAY 20TH TO SATURDAY 22ND MARCH 2025

JOIN US TO FIND YOUR SPRING BALANCE THIS SPRING EQUINOX!

THURSDAY 20TH IFTAR DINNER & FUNDRAISER 6-8PM

In this time of Ramadan, come and break your fast and enjoy delicious food with us. Everyone is welcome whether fasting or not, and all food and drinks are free. Bring sweet treats to share! Prayer space available. Fundraiser for Habibti Liverpool and ‘Soup it Forward’. More info here

FRIDAY 21ST FAMILY SEED-SOWING 2-4PM

Come by and plant up some seeds and seedlings for spring, and take some with you to love at home.

SATURDAY 22ND STREET ART & MICROFARM INTRODUCTIONS 12-3PM

We’re playing out on Windsor Street on Saturday! Come and find us outside Squash for some pavement drawing, chats, spring tasters and more info about the upcoming Micro Farm project!