Wow - it's great to be back!

Today was the first community mission in Newcastle where more than one member could go and help out. There have been lots of great goings on independently, but it's super to see that we can help out as a (small) team again since group runs were canceled back in March.

This was the first (hopefully of many) trip to help with Building Futures food bank which started up to help with the difficulties that families are facing due to coronavirus. As soon as tomorrow, a team will be back again to finish the work we did, but we also hope we can continue to help out in the coming weeks.

Today's task was to begin packing the many bags that would be taken to families tonight and tomorrow. Our goal was 150 in total! 45 of the bags would have basic items (pasta, bread, tinned food and some treats, for example) and the rest would have the basic item,s plus some fresh fruit and veg! Some of the familiesreceiving the bags have worked with Building Futures before (through projects such as East End Women), and others were referred or self-referred due to the current situation.

Richard and I soon got to work on lines of 10 bags each, whizzing round the room and filling up 80 bags in around an hour. I then took some of those to add the fruit and veg to while richard carried on packing, and soon we had 43 of the 'basics' bags, and 51 'basics, fruit and veg bags'. Unfortunatley, we ran out of the nice sturdy bags , but with some quick maths, we managed to bag a good few more 'fruit and veg' and 'basics' bags in separate plastic carrier bags. Basically, we got through a lot!

I'm sure tomorrow's team will have their hands equally full, as another generous donation came in while we were there that we are sure will need sorting, and they get to complete the goal of 150 bags (with out little head start!)

Hopefully we'll be back again to help out this great charity, who have set a superb example of adapting to the needs of the community and continuing to do good even when times are tough!