I enjoyed my first session Linda was very helpful and everyone made me feel welcome and relaxed atmosphere I enjoyed packing and moving around to keep fit and exercise. Thank you for the opportunity to support vulnerable families in our communities.

We have missed our AJ at Frenford Food Bank while she has been off marshaling at the Paris Olympics. Our "bits and bobs" shelf had got into much disarray in her absence. Always relishing the chance to create order from disorder she got to work making a big difference in very little time. Welcome back AJ!

Meanwhile Ed got on with sorting and stacking the recent big donation from the local scouts and Linda sorted through a big black bag containing an anonymous donation most of which was years past the BBF date and had to be thrown out. We all know BBF doesn't always mean its gone bad but chocolate from 2020 and milk powder 7 years past its date is really not on 🙄

Restricted funds and storage issues has meant biscuits are no longer on our list and the shelves had to be cleared and cleaned off. Shifting the packets led to much "intellectual" discussion about, best biscuits, boring biscuits, dunking biscuits, the infiltration if the American Orio biscuit and when is a biscuit not a biscuit? To be fair we were in the company of a very helpful 13 year old volunteer so conversation had to be kept light. 😁

On his way in another time James noticed rubbish accumulating, so the three of us set off down the road to go and sort it out.

Of course one cannot just walk past loose bits on the way there, so it became more of a plot. A set of bushes along the side of the road might need a different plan of attack... one that includes protective clothing and some secateurs.

Chatting along the way time flew by and bags were filling up. As always there were some odd items, from a bit of balustrade to (half a) crutch to huge ABBA poster and of course a wide collection of rubbish in all shapes & sizes.

Even on the way back the temptation became too much and a few more bits found their way into the bin.

Job well done and light starting to fade earlier these days, it was time to round it off and make our way home.

Next session in two weeks will likely helping out around Wanstead House, Babybank tbc on the 30th

Ed and Linda brought the tools out to Bernards Close, James arrived soon after and we all got on with clearing the area of weeds and other debris. Then we cut back the rosemary and lavender so it was not encroaching on the pavement and the smell of fragrant herbs was hanging in the area for a good hour or more afterwards. The last job was putting a bit of leftover mulch around the few remaining plants and we were done.

Ed was not keen on the post task run idea and was happy to put the tools away so Linda and James set off with every intention of having a good run but it turned out to be more of a chatty walk/jog (6km +) having sad that we did manage a couple of hill repeats on the local notoriously steep hill.

Starting with a huge welcome to the Frenford Foodbank team for our new member Gabriella, recruited from our local Parkrun she arrived keen to make a start and was soon picking, packing and generally making herself a very valuable member of the team.

Julia and Kathryn made themselves very useful packing bags and teaming up to shift heavy crates together...although I am not convinced Kathryn giving someone bonus tinned pasta and chocolate mini rolls was a good swap for not having the right sized nappies but it made us laugh.

It was lovely to see Irina again who slipped into the team quietly getting on with things and doing a great job...so quiet I forgot to take her photo, sorry Irena, if its any consolation I also forgot to get a photo of myself 🤦‍♀️

Our regular couple of power packers Herman and Tina proved invaluable as ever completed a very efficient team.

With the steady stream of us arriving at different times and working alongside a couple of Frenfords own volunteers, things ticked over so smoothly we were finished early and had energy to spare to off load a supermarket delivery.

The only hitch was not having initial access to the storage cages so the packages had to be shifted about in crates then lifted on to the cages when the spare store key arrived but no one seemed to mind as we worked together and got the job finished.

The task owner was very pleased and sends a big thank you for our help.

Good job GoodGym. 😁

With things a little quieter over the summer holidays, this was the perfect time to nip down to the babybank and clear any backlog of donations before things pick up again next month.

So three of Goodgym Redbridge finest set off from base to join Adam at the Cornerstone Church to go through bags of donated clothing.

Mira's first visit to the babybank was a jump straight into the deep end, with a bag full of weird and wonderful things, more miscellaneous items that clothing! He took on the challenge with a smile, sorting it all without a hiccup - give the man a cheer!

Adams thanks still in our ears we set off into the darkening evening, ignoring the drizzle, to make our way back to base - job done!