As the Ealing Soup Kitchen rising star Steph was feeling a bit under the weather, he dropped a message in our group chat around 3 pm. With one hour to go for the mission, I was thinking about who would sign up at the last minute. Raj replied immediately and signed up.

This was Raj's first time with the soup kitchen. While we were waiting for the delivery van, Emma asked us to put the clothes on display. Raj and I started with women's clothes and moved toward men's. Halfway through I switched to a snack-bag-making task. We had to make 90 snack bags.

You are good with Maths aren't you - Tim

Rebecca did the drinks run today as we were out of drinks after making 44 bags. Raj after arranging the men's clothes, joined us and completed the last bits of making snack bags. We finished arranging clothes, making grocery bags and snack bags by 5:15 pm.

Some of us treated ourselves with protein bars, kinder joy eggs, and chocolates. Tim made the tea for us today. There were two Lizs today who were in charge of the kitchen. Chilli con carne was being heated in the stoves, while Liz was making pots of rice back to back.

Rice with Chilli con carne topped with grated cheddar was the meal of the day

As we had some time before the gates are open, Raj and I started labeling the clothes. Raj planned to stay back some more time and Sevan reached by 6 pm and positioned himself in the men's section. As I was about to leave, Liz asked whether I could wash the rice pots. Then I lost track of time as I immersed myself in dishwashing.