On a chilly March evening, 6 Coventry Good-Gymers made their way to St Columbas Church to support the Coventry Winter Night Shelter sorting and organising donations.

For some members of the team, this was a return visit to the Night Shelter and they were excited to see that the re-organised stock room was still looking in great shape! This week we were also able to introduce Liam and Kevin to the Night Shelter mission, more Good-Gymers to add to the souper-sorter team!

This week our main task was to organise food donations that the Night Shelter had received from a local school. The generous donations arrived in beautifully decorated boxes and were already helpfully pre-sorted into different categories such as biscuits, tea, pasta and lots of soup! One of our more interesting finds this week was a jar of chicken paste which was a cue to discuss childhood memories of school packed lunches. The team were able to speedily add the new donations to the existing stock, re-organise and re-label boxes, which should allow night shelter staff to access food goods easily, therefore maximising their time with service-users.

We were also able to support with organising toiletries, re-stocking clothing donations and clear one of the meeting rooms before it was time to head off home! It has been so rewarding to see the progression of this task each month and see the impact on an invaluable service for many of the members of our community.

Amazing work everyone! Looking forward to the final installment of the Coventry Winter Night Shelter community missions in April!