Its always a bit tricky organising a task during a midweek working day but it is rare to only have two signed up for Frenford Food bank picking and packing day. Ed and Linda arrived early to help set up and, as they were the only two there when due to start, they steeled themselves for a long session. Fortunately one of the food bank recipients put themselves forward to help and was quickly snapped up and trained up. A little later a Frenford helper arrived, took one look round and called in two of her family in to help out, including dragging her Daughter out of bed.

Once again this little community worked together and managed to get 55 food packages out to the less fortunate in our borough. We even finished on time 😊

Our AJ asked Linda if there was anything doing at Frenford food bank today just as we had received notification that they needed help offloading some supermarket deliveries. Not one to turn down offers from good helpers Linda quickly set up a task and signed her long suffering Husband Ed and AJ and up.

AJ thought the "new shelves" in the store cupboard were really nice and stared in disbelief when told they were the same old ones that GG jet washed during a recent session 😂

With it being short notice there were just the three of us but it turned out to be just about right for the amount of stock involved and the time alloted to it. A satisfying little job, quickly and efficiently done.

With the supermarket delivery already offloaded and Ed and Linda coming in early to set up the cages we were ahead of the game at Frenford Food Bank this week. Sadly the printer was not so on the ball and we had a little wait for the orders to be produced.

Time to do a little extra shelf filling and for Linda to try on a jacket which AJ was passing on from one of her stewarding volunteer sessions. It fit perfectly which is not surprising as you can see from the photo we are practically twins. 😂 While taking that photo Liz accidentally took a photo of her foot which came in handy as a 'before' photo...see below for explanation.

Pretty soon we were picking and packing at a rate of knots. It was really hot despite having all the doors open and there were some pretty pink faces around. We were about to stop for a tea break when Liz dropped a pack of tuna tins on her foot which Linda found hilarious ...until she saw the blood 😳(sorry Liz) like the trooper she is Liz was back up and packing again as soon as she was cleaned up and plastered. Things were going so well and we thought we were finished early but were asked to hang on as more orders had come in so we had a little pause for flapjacks and other treats then finished off the last few while Ed started restocking the shelves and it wasn't too long before we were done.

Our Marie and Helena told us that they wont be coming to sessions for a while due to other commitments, they have both been such valuable members of the team we will miss them but wish them well on their separate ventures.

All in all another successful mission under our belts.

What a lovely lot of volunteers we had signed up today. Welcome to our newest member Victoria (likes to be known as Tors) and to Sevan a more seasoned GoodGymmer who came all the way from Ealing to add Redbridge to his list of GG boroughs visited. Frenford Foodbank had been let down on deliveries with some supplies arriving late and others not turning up at all. Linda and Ed decided to forgo the task of having everything set up early to go in search of rice, 5 Supermarkets later they'd managed to "score" 84kgs and arrived 5 minutes late 🙈 to find other volunteers ready and waiting.

There was then a flurry of activity where things were put on shelves, cages shifted about, admin sorted and bagging station set up. We had the briefest instruction session and we were off finally doing the picking and packing we set out to do. As this was the last session before Easter chocolate eggs and other treats were added for families with children.

Despite the time used for other tasks before the packing we still managed to get 35 of the 57 packages done before most people needed to leave. Luckily a couple were able to stay on and finish the rest.

Good Job Everyone 🥳🤩

We certainly were on a roll at Frenford Food Bank this week. With one of the Supermarket deliveries not showing up and having a good number of volunteers we had finished the advertised task mega early 🥳.

The rest of time allocated was well used getting ahead of the game. Peter portioned up the tea bags, Helena and Michael regrouped the toilet rolls, Linda cut boards to use as crate lids, Ed sorted and dated the biscuits and AJ had a cup of tea...😂...thats not fair she actually made her self very useful reoganising shelves 😁.

A lot of worthwhile jobs done and we still finished a bit early. Nice work GGR.

It was a game of three parts at Frenford Foodbank today. We started off clearing out the store room so we could give it a much overdue spring clean. Ed moved on to counting up how much we had on the shelves so the task owner can put a supermarket order in. Helena got stuck in to putting the donations on the shelves.

Sending out a big welcome to Vicky who completed her first GGR mission today 🥳 Helena wasted no time in showing her the ropes and they both did a fabulous job.

Meanwhile Peter and Linda embarked on the task of bleaching down the shelves in the storeroom with the help of some soggy cloths and a temperamental pressure washer. It definitely looked and smelled a lot better out there by the time we were done.

Three good jobs done in one session. 🥳🥳🥳

James, Linda and Eddie arrived at Ilford's Forest Garden to be greeted by the task owner Carol who wasted no time in putting us to work. The Guys were busy preparing and hammering in stakes to line the pathways while Linda took the gentler job of weaving hazel twigs between the stakes to create a low level fence.

As lovely as it was to be out in the fresh air,after 90 mins the chill was starting to set in so we left as the next set of volunteers arrived to take over.

There really was a magnificent turn out at Frenford Food Bank today. Helena and Frenford volunteer Jan got started on sorting out our large stock of tea bags into date order. Peter got stuck into filling a mouse sized hole under the store room door, Michael's first job was refilling the pasta sauce shelves, Jason was helping Ed deal with the fruit shelf and Marie got on with organising the donations.

Everyone worked so well, by the time Linda had given the last person a task the first person was back asking "whats next?" they all only needed to be told once and did a fabulous job. Pretty soon the door was fixed stock sorted into date order and 2 cages of donations off loaded and shelved up.

Good Job GG Gang 😍

It was Valentines ParkRun's 666th event this week. They were expecting extra tourists as one of the challenges they like to do is run where the event number is triple digits. James, Eddie and Linda answered the call for extra volunteers and arrived to find the beautiful Valentines bathed in sunshine and starting to show signs that spring is in the air 🌷

After a little catch up with other runners we took to our posts, cheering on and directing cheering nearly 400 runners round the course. Among our 300 or so regular runners some of the tourists were marking the 666 number of the beast session by sporting horns and devil tails 👹, all in good fun.