This week, 3 GGers made the trip to a food bank drop off site and made a donation (two at the Vineyard, one at the Toy Station), including some of the priority items on the list such as UHT milk, tea, nappies, razors and shaving foam, and shampoo. Every little helps in these times and all gifts are welcome.

This week, 4 Richmond GGers took time out of their day to make a donation to the Richmond Foodbank via one of the multiple drop-off points listed. Bravo to all!

The Ivy bridge Food bank at All Souls Church in St Margaret's was running low on donations. Having increased delivery from every 3 days to every 7 days to help with social distancing, the size of the food parcels it gives also needed to increase. They needed more but they had less, so they sent out an email to supporters for help. Ellen brought this to our attention & we set out to do what we could to help. Here's our socially distanced reports:

29th April

T "On my run!! Are you joking. I wish 😂 did a brisk walk. Took some pics. Made the man be in the photo with me. Don’t think he really wanted to! Ha ha. He said he’d been trawling through cans of beans. He seemed tired but hey ho. I told him about goodgym and what we do and about the help we do in the area and that hopefully he’ll see more of us as we’ve set it up as a community mission to help them"

JP " I'm planning to ring the bell and gracefully retire 2m so someone can emerge tomorrow morning Picked up some Tesco goodies this evening"

4th May

Kate "I’ve just donated a couple of bags of long life items to all souls. Met John and a few others who were sorting through donations."

13th May

Monica "I went to the All Souls Church last week to drop off a donation and decided to walk there before lunchtime and as an additional bonus, it was a lovely warm and sunny day. Was a good walk and the church was easy to find and so was the office, clearly marked behind the church. The packages were dropped off and collected by a staff member."

Samia "I did the delivery during my lunch break at my non-redeployed job the other day as it's just a short walk away"

15th May

Mena "I got there approx 9.30am this morning. the guy there was super happy to see a GG T-shirt."

Bex "I went to all souls this morning and was pleased to see lots of donations! It was easy to drop your donation off and keep a safe 2m distance. "

Cathy I had a lovely walk riverside to All Souls Church to drop off food and toiletry items that had collected from my kind and generous neighbours. At the Church office, handed over to office manager Jon who warmly greeted me and said I hadn't been the first GGer there, asking curiously how I traveled (must be a story here somewhere 🙂). We had a good chat as he patiently answered my questions regarding the entire process of how the food bank operates.

On my return, crossed someone wearing a GG red shirt - another Jon! From GG Camden who had cycled to Kew Bridge and then ran from there. When we introduced ourselves found it fascinating how in-built it is to either want to come towards the person or extend a hand. He knew some folks from GG Richmond too, having participated in a event with us some time ago.

John "I've just left them a bag of groceries. Look who I saw who'd been there just before me... " ...It was Cathy!

Thanks Cathy for the excellent pun :) & for going to the extra effort of collecting from your neighbours! And well done to Bex for her second community mission, we all hope to be able to run with you soon!

All Souls aren't going anywhere and will always be grateful for your donations, see the pictures or their website for drop off times: www.allsoulschurch.org.uk/community/all-souls-ivybridge/foodbank/

May the fourth was with us this week as we assembled once again to donate food supplies to the Vineyard (Richmond Foodbank). Lucky for us, the sun shined down as we made our separate journeys by foot, by bike (and starship...).

Last year the Richmond Foodbank gave 2,385 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis and now they are helping many more people during the pandemic so our donations are well needed.

All manner of supplies were given - taking note of the items that were in short supply - tea, packets of mash, tinned veggies, cereal, long-life milk, soup. Everything is gratefully received with open arms & is so appreciated.

Harry and Anita challenged themselves to collect their biggest bounty yet posting notices to their neighbours to give donations after the regular Thursday 8pm ‘Clap for Carers’. This proved very popular so once again they loaded bags and pannier to deliver everything to the Vineyard. Superb effort!

Each of us were thanked for our kind donations - it really means a lot, especially at this uncertain time.

Last week's community mission to make donations to the Vineyard saw us basking in glorious sunshine as we dropped off our bags of goodies. Not so this time, as intermittent heavy rain meant pretty much everyone got soaked as they made their delivery (except EL who managed to dodge the downpour as she popped down, only being splashed by one car on the way and catching a glimpse of the sun on arrival - lucky thing!). That said, not everyone minded the rain - Kate had a jolly old time jumping in the puddles on her walk!

The Vineyard Community Centre, which runs the local foodbank services in Richmond, is still struggling to cope with the drop-off in donations from suppliers and individuals as a result of the disruption caused by Covid-19, but of course the demand remains as great if not greater. So it was great to see the GG crew made it out in force despite the last of the April showers.

So we all went for a trip to the bank. The food bank, that is - where today we were happy to meet the bank manager, discuss the status of our bank balance, consider investing and ultimately make a deposit. Sorry about the puns, just wanted to make a bank statement.

As before, the most urgently needed items are long-life foodstuffs, so we were really left carrying the can. Or cans. Not to mention cartons, boxes, packets, tubs, jars, bottles and bags. All the food was gratefully received, and we were told that it would be going straight back out the door to the needy recipients as the demand is so high. It's critical work we're doing her, so big thanks to everyone who made it down this time.

We will continue to make donations at the Vineyard as long as they need us to, and work is going on to increase the impact we're having by coordinating collection/drop-off from other local residents who cannot make it to the Vineyard in the allotted time. In the meantime, look out for a new listing for donations next week - and remember you can do it on Monday or Thursday 12.30 - 4.30pm.

Finally, a warm welcome to Bex, new to GG Richmond and on her first community mission today - it seems odd not to be able to meet people on a group run in the usual way, but we're super happy to have you on the team and look forward to the time you can join us for one of Mark's famous warm-ups and a task in the local area!