After the busy lunch session today, I stayed on to help with the clean up. There was a huge amount of washing up - including some enormous pots -then the entire kitchen had to be left clean and tidy. Tables and chairs had to be taken down and stacked away but I left that to the younger and fitter volunteers! One of my tasks was to clean the cooker then fit all the large oven trays back in the oven - it was a bit like a three-dimensional jigsaw. I managed - with a bit of help!

I’m not sure why but today’s Friday Hub at Ealing Soup Kitchen seemed extra busy. Lots of regular faces and quite a few new ones. I was serving in the dining room for the lunch session - minced beef ragu with rice and vegetables or vegetable pasty with vegetables. Dessert was apple strudel and ice cream. It all went down a storm and this waitress was in need of a brief sit down afterwards!

The Friday Hub did not have the GOATS Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and yes it was on the menu, but the real GOATS today were the Goodgymers as they dug deep as super busy day, regular volunteers missing and less volunteers in some areas. Lunch service was the 2nd shift for the 3 GOATS. Iram went from the parcel section to serving food and going through the kitchen to help clean. Thaiza went from serving Tea and Coffee, followed by helping in the clothing section and then then being in a busy kitchen. Steph Ducat was in the kitchen since 10am cooking/preparing food to then plating food with some washing up too. Todays Menu was Carribean style :

• Vegetable soup(carribean version)
• Curry Goat with rice and peas or plain rice
• Vegetarian curried chick peas with rice
• Baked Chicken
• Fried Dumplings
• Main dishes had a side salad and a portion of coleslaw
• Apple struddle with ice cream

The food went down like a treat and not much left for take way. The team are definately are the GOATS today as we nearly served 190 persons.

Ealing Soup Kitchen is a brilliant charity that looks after vulnerable and homeless people in Ealing. Every Friday, they run a drop-in service at St John’s where guests can enjoy hot meals, free clothes, showers, barbers, games, workshops, and advice.

This week, Thaiza, Steph Ducat, and Iram divided and conquered the tea shift. Thaiza manned the tea and coffee station, keeping cups filled and spirits high, while bravely navigating a plate of mystery biscuits... what looked like chocolate chips turned out to be fruit and milk chocolate in disguise!

Meanwhile, Steph Ducat earned the title of Coleslaw King, helping prepare a delicious dinner of curried goat, baked chicken, and chickpea curry with rice and peas. When the food delivery finally arrived (two hours late!) it was all hands on deck. Iram and the team worked at full speed to portion and pack meals, marking each crate with food items to keep track. There was so much food that the bags were bursting by the end of the shift!

Steph Ducat stayed for last shift : the cleaning shift. After cooking, serving and eating you have the cleaning up to do. A few volunteers stayed to clean up the foyer, serving area and the kitchen when loads had to be cleaned. Sonia said with her lovely english/venezuela accent : too many pots and pans today!! It was the case as it didnt help that someone put the dishwasher on drain/clean mode which meant a lot more to be done by hand. In the end the kitchen was spotless, the sticky pans were shinning again and we could all go home to relax after a hard shift in the kitchen.

Ealing Soup Kitchen were a little short on volunteers for their Monday dinner service.

Iram got stuck in helping prepare for the service: setting up tables, putting together snack bags and unloading a generous food delivery from City Harvest. There was also some extra lifting to do with clothing donations. These were unpacked and ready to go when another organisation, forced inside by the wet weather, needed the same space to distribute their goods, so the clothing table had to be packed back away and reloaded into the cupboard. A bit of unexpected musical chairs with donations!

Despite the wet weather and juggling, everything was ready well in time for service!