Happy New Year. GoodGym is back. The day cold and clear. Bags ready to pack.

The drivers arrived. We didn’t get flustered. This rhyme is contrived. As we had lots of custard.

Enough of that! It was great to get back into the swing of things at the East End Women’s foodbank today after a break over the festive period. It was also great to see the shelves well-stocked - especially with custard! Kate made her first visit to the foodbank and immediately got stuck into loading ready packed bags into the volunteer delivery drivers’ cars. Once the other deliveries were sorted we re-stacked some of the shelves - then immediately depleted them by packing more bags ready for next week! A productive session.

However, today was tinged with sadness. I don’t feel I can write this report without acknowledging the hugely sad death on Christmas Day of one of the volunteer drivers, Donald. Anyone who has been at the foodbank over the last few months will have met Donald and I’m sure, like me, will remember him as a wonderful, kind and generous man who went out of his way to help others. We are privileged to have known him, if only for a few months, and our thoughts are with his family xxx