The mission that lay ahead, assuming we made it to the end, would be the longest and arguably the biggest - and with a 5:45am start for the briefing, it was without doubt the earliest. Whisky fuelled bar crawls and Burns night suppers the night before did not stop us from meeting at Whitechapel Mission roughly 2 hours before sunrise. We were however, soon shaken from our waking slumber by the friendly, energetic welcome from Michelle and Gary and by the sheer speed and efficiency at which we found ourselves in the kitchen, briefed and at our stations. It was an odd sensation having been told what was going to happen in the next few hours and yet not having any idea really what to expect. Goodgymmer Frances and 5 friends came up with the idea of doing this last Christmas and rang in some Goodgym help. 

The mission: Cook and serve breakfast for up to 300 homeless people. On the menu: - A personalisable full breakfast (sausage, bacon, egg, beans, hash browns, mushrooms, tomato, toast) - Cereal - Porridge - Tea/coffee.

The tea/coffee service started early as the doors were open an hour before food was served. Visitors were also provided with toiletries and many were happy to have a chat. At the same time, a dozen cans of beans, mushrooms and tomatoes were cooking away and toast was buttered. Followed by a few litres of porridge and a couple of frying pans cooking 20 sausages and 8 or so eggs at a time. The serving area was prepped while Gary and Michelle kept everything on track and made sure we followed the most important rule: never stop smiling. 

At 8am the breakfast service started and the 'front of house' got much busier as the cooking eased off a little, except for constant top ups of fried eggs, hash browns and another large pot of beans. There was also a 'phone charging service' for anyone who needed to charge their phone.

After 2 hours that seemed to fly by, we started the cleanup, which was made easier as dirty dishes were washed with ruthless efficiency as we went along. In case anyone is wondering, hash browns seemed to be the most popular thing, tomatoes the least. 

We finished a wonderful, unique, fulfilling day with an interesting tour of the building by Ray, who revealed an intriguing piece of Jack the Ripper history, but you will have to volunteer at the Mission to find out for yourself!