Three of us arrived at Frenford Food bank to find 50 food orders to be packed. Luckily we had four lovely friends of Frenford to help too. As usual both teams gelled really well, working together and helping one another out or facilitating rest and refuel breaks. Just as we thought we had finished another two were added so in the end 52 packages were picked and packed.

Linda and Ed had already been there twice this week prepping for today and must have done a good job of organising things as we seemed to finish really quickly and a shout out goes to Peter for using his valuable annual leave to give the task his invaluable help.

AJ and the spouse attended at We Don’t Waste’s Happy Happy Hour ‘Sort-n-Sip’ and prepared bags of non-perishable food essentials in preparation for the upcoming American Thanksgiving Celebration. As there were so many volunteers, the task was quickly and efficiently completed and was followed by lovely pizza and donated drinks. It was a fun way to help out in the local community.

a dreary miserable day & evening + no fixed plans + not feeling the best = 'democratic' decision to call it a night.

to mis-quote Arnie - 'we'll be back'

AJ attended at We Don’t Waste in Denver and was soon put to task with fellow volunteer Julie with sorting and organising through a huge box of random items, from cereal boxes to packs of rice to, erm, medical suppositories!! Next up was assisting representatives from various agencies / charities who collect food for their local communities. Our car loading / packing Jenga skills were put to the test but all items were soon successfully sent off with car boots packed to the car roofs. A good session. 👏🏻

Now the clocks have gone back, the darkness creeps in earlier, so it is about time to get those head torches charged again!

This evening Aunty Linda strolled around Wanstead with her two 'bodyguards', picking up litter in some of the usual hotspots and finding a new one as well.

Besides the usual rubbish and a few car parts on the way, the new dump found had lots of rubbish including NO2 canisters and numberplates, to name a few items.

In total 7 bags were filled up, left for the Council to collect.

The impending loss of SNAP benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps) due to the US Government shutdown, means that many States are now figuring out how to feed millions of people which has led to a huge increase in the daily use of foodbanks. For example, today, AJ attended at Denver’s Metro Caring’s Foodbank, which ran very low on bread, milk and eggs. Hopefully the Government shutdown will end soon.