With Earth Day right around the corner it was great to be back working away with Oxford Urban Wildlife Group in Boundary Brook Nature Park.

The three acres of land at the Nature Park gave us plenty of space to divide into work teams and spread out across the hidden gem of a site.

Pathway Team
The wildlife group is planning a series of gravel paths, intending to make the Nature Park pathways passable even in the soggiest weather. Our teams laid the first stage of two long stretches of the paths heading off in different directions across Boundary Brook Nature Park. The path-layers got a good upper body workout shovelling limestone rocks and wheelbarrowing them across the site to spread. They made lovely long stretches of meandering paths, using up the whole limestone gravel heap.

Litter team
A litter-picking team scouted the perimeter of the Nature Park. The pathways surrounding the site are a hotspot for litter, and a huge amount ends up inside the railings. Trying to avoid total entanglement in the brambles we unearthed cans, bottles, bike locks, shoes, balls, tyres, even a car bumper! (No pants though.) Some lucky timing meant we were able to load our full bags straight onto an Oxford Direct Services truck for disposal.

Fence posts team
Flexing their arm muscles the third team started driving in posts for new fencing. 4 in, many more to do next time.

It was lovely to be out and about working on a project which maintains and conserves wildlife in Oxford, and helps local people discover the city’s wildlife and wild places. You can find out more about Boundary Brook Nature Park here.

Well done on reaching the 10 Good Deeds milestone Ruth!

Welcome Sarah, Bronwyn, and Claire. Good to meet you!

Yesterday was our 24th consecutive Wednesday packing and delivering food parcels for Oxford Mutual Aid. We packed 49 parcels and delivered 30 of them, helping approximately 70 people.

The graph picture shows the number of food parcels we’ve prepared each Wednesday session going back to our first one at the end of October last year. What it doesn’t show is our small team’s dedication to helping distribute the much needed food:

We have packed over 900 parcels on Wednesdays, delivered an estimated 600+, walked hundreds of miles between us to deliver food, chatted on the doorstep to lonely people, and got to know the food preferences of strangers.

GoodGymers have turned up to help on cold, dark nights, in rain, ice and snow, supported each other throughout winter lockdown and welcomed new members of the team. We haven’t taken a week off, because hunger doesn’t stop.

Our superstar GoodGym Oxford crew do Saturday and Sunday shifts at Oxford Mutual Aid too (we just don’t have stats and graphs for those!), have helped out on Christmas Day and bank holiday weekends, not to mention Rob raising incredible sums of money to replenish OMA coffers.

A report released by the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee yesterday estimated that up to 5.9 million adults and 1.7 million children experienced food poverty or insecurity in the six months to February. Those statistics are appalling, but they're also just numbers easily scrolled past. Knowing that people on your street, in your neighbourhood, in your town can't afford essential food and are calling for help shows the human impact behind the numbers.

As COVID restrictions lift a little next week we will adjust our way of working with Oxford Mutual Aid to a system which allows us time to also help other community projects who are reaching out to us. So, it’s an end to Wednesdays as we’ve known them for the last 24 weeks, but certainly not an end to working with Oxford Mutual Aid. We'll still be packing food parcels but making fewer deliveries.

At this pivot point I wanted to say how proud I’ve been of Goodgym Oxford members. We’ve been able to muster around 30 helpers every week through some very difficult weeks without ever having to beg or cajole. You’ve seen the need and met it.

Thank you ♥️

Last night Oxford Mutual Aid was a hive of activity!

First we packed:

• 6 Emergency Food Parcels (for 10 adults, plus children) to get some food to people who have run out.
  
• 40 regular parcels (for 54 adults), full of food, cleaning supplies, toiletries, and baby stuff.

Next we loaded up 4 cars for motorised delivery routes, and restocked the shelves as much as possible.

Then, the big event....23 GoodGymers, plus GoodGym mascot Peggy the pooch, flexed their biceps and stretched their legs to deliver 32 parcels of essentials on foot and by bicycle.
With more than one delivery per GoodGymer there was quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing around East Oxford, and even those without a double delivery found themselves loaded up to the gills with carrier bags. Gold stars to all those who brought rucksacks and bike panniers so that they could fit even more on their delivery route, and kudos to Ben and Georgia who managed to transport 6 bags full of goodies all the way to Marston - 1.8 miles by my calculation!

We might be out of the strictest lockdown measures for now, but the demand for food help isn't dropping. In fact tonight we had more emergency deliveries than we've had for a few weeks, and last week emergency requests for food support were at an all time high: 94 emergency food parcels were sent out over the course of the week, alongside all the regular food deliveries. An astonishing feat for a team of volunteers.

Thank you to Ruth for the donation of toiletries and to Lorenzo for the Ramadan goodies.
Welcome Lena - good to meet you!
Welcome back Annabel - lovely to see you for the first time since becoming a Mum. Hope you can make it back again soon.

By the last light of the day 31 GoodGymers gathered beside a church on the Cowley Road.
At 5:45pm a watch beeped and -pop! - out of the Richard Benson Hall came a red-clad and very bossy group leader.
She started to look at the food parcel delivery list...

Who's here so far?

At 5:50pm the first food parcels left to be delivered.
But there was still more to do.

At 6pm bike panniers and rucksacks were filled.
But there was still more to do.

At 6:05pm asparagus and ragu were added to the parcels.
But there was still more to do.

At 6:10pm 5 food parcels went out in a flurry of activity.
But there was still more to do.

At 6:15pm the last of the regular food parcels went out of the door.
But there was still more to do!

At 6:30pm Emergency food parcels were loaded up, crates were stacked away, shelves were restocked, cardboard was broken down, meals were put in the fridge, fruit and vegetables were sorted out, buns were emptied, and stock levels reported.......

The team started to feel tired.

So the GoodGymers ate a whole Colin the Caterpillar. And they started to perk up, giving them the energy to run home and recover from their exertions....

.....so that they can do it all over again next Wednesday evening.

39 food parcels were packed and delivered on Wednesday night, which will help 50 adults, plus several children and babies.

Well done Angus on completing your 50th Good Deed!

Check out The Very Hungry Caterpillar here.