For our last Goodgym community mission of the year goodgymers once again travelled to Colchester foodbank with good cheer, some Christmas hats and outfits, and most importantly, energy!

Vanessa led shift one consisting of Dominic, Rachael, Phil, Ian and Robin. Sorting was the order of the day with an array of produce and crates being date sorted at the back of the warehouse, with others sorting recently received donations from the public. Regular volunteers have been telling us that the number of donations they have been receiving has been unprecedented, much like the year in general.

There was a brief chat at shift crossover time before James, Detti, Ben and Mikaela continued sorting donations whilst Nick and Rachel made up, weighed and crated parcels for the regular volunteers to provide to provide to clients when the foodbank reopened to the public on Monday.

One of the trustees also kindly poked her head in to provide badges and treats for the team to say a small thank you to everyone from Goodgym who has helped the foodbank this year.

There was a final push from everyone to get the warehouse tidied up the best we could, ready to shut the doors for Goodgym at Colchester foodbank in 2020.

In summary.....

On the 19th of December Goodgymers may have seen;

12 milk crates sorted,

11 juice crates dated,

10 parcels made up,

9 tea crates sorted,

8(0’s) music blasting,

7 badges gifted,

6 pasta crates sorted,

5 cereal crates moved,

4 regular volunteer drop ins,

3 goodgymers cycling,

2 Christmas jumpers,

and more pants news from the PM.

Happy Christmas all.

This week at the foodbank the regular volunteers had been overwhelmed with donations from the public so Vanessa, Nick and Rachel (new to Goodgym, welcome again!) got involved with sorting donations in to food types ready to be date sorted and eventually provided to clients. Meanwhile Dominic and Rachael started to make parcels up (very efficiently) ready for clients on the coming Monday. Unfortunately Christmas always sees the foodbank at its busiest so having a stack of parcels ready to go really help the regular volunteers to have all the time they need to ensure clients are understood and helped.

Upon arrival, Ella was straight on the shopping aisle making up baskets for Tav and Robin to weigh, bag, crate and continue where Dominic and Rachael left off readying parcels. James and Alistair were asked to reorganise the somewhat brimming warehouse and rotate stock (mainly biscuits and cereal this week) to ensure that short dated items are accessible to be given to clients first and longer dated items stacked out of the way for future use. Generously donated items going out of date in the warehouse is avoided at all costs!

Once again, Mike at the foodbank (who can be seen photobombing Tav and Ella) gave his thanks for Goodgym's continuing efforts and asked us back again for following weeks. The warehouse was left in much better shape than when the team arrived with a stack of parcels ready to go out to help those in need.

Saturday saw familiar faces returning and some new to the foodbank arriving to help out with the never ending task of sorting and creating space in the foodbank warehouse.

Initially Mikaela, Rosalind and Alastair were decanting stock from the storage containers with Rachael and Dominic starting the sorting the variety of tins in to months and quarters to help ensure short dated food is supplied to those in need and nothing is wasted. Once the relevant items had been decanted from the container everyone mucked in to assist the sorting effort.

Meanwhile there were a few deliveries from local supermarkets and local people which needed weighing and moving in to the warehouse. Some of the regular foodbank volunteers were also on hand to sort deliveries and stock and save the time of volunteers during the week to ensure they have the time needed to help clients.

And in a flash, shift one was over with the arrival of Nick, Detti, Denise and Robin.

The van was the destination for Christmas goodies from the latest foodbank appeal for sorting at another location, with the team again summoning their Tetris skills to get the van as full as possible.

Nick and Detti were asked to sort the “shopping aisle” where packages are put together for clients by one of the regular volunteers. Meanwhile, Robin and Denise set to work sorting some of the odd tins and items which didn’t have a home.

Across the two sessions the team put in a lot of effort, created a lot of space and saved a lot of time for the regular volunteers for the coming week. Mike has again asked me to pass on his thanks to everyone at Goodgym on behalf of the foodbank.

5 goodgymers met at Cuckoo Farm Studios on a cold and wet Sunday morning. We have been coming to Cuckoo Farm regularly for the last few months to help with gardening.

We met with Pam first thing and she loaded as up with scrubbing brushes cloths and warm soapy water. Rather than the usual gardening, we were tasked with helping clean some of the outbuildings ready for painting. The rain poured non-stop but we diligently carried on with the task in hand. First of all we worked on cleaning the wood panelling on one of the buildings, taking it from mossy green to a nice, clean white. We made light work of this and we then moved on to cleaning a caravan which houses the Cafe during the opening season.

With the place looking significantly spruced up, Pam thanked us with tea and biscuits before sending us all on our way.

Twelve Goodgymers met at LeisureWorld for an evening of litter picking in response to the Great British September Clean; a national campaign which, during this critical year, replaces the usual spring clean. Well done to those who were close enough to walk or run to the task and welcome back to our newest members.

We clothed ourselves fit for action in high-vis vests, head torches, a warm layer and sturdy gloves. Tav used a black sack to model this season's Goodgym must-haves: a skirt a la Alexander McQueen and a leg garter a la...well...a la Tav! We distributed pickers and set off through the car park, picking as we went, then along the River Colne and accompanying paths. Goodgym is keen to help with the local RiverCare group in keeping this stretch of the river and its banks free of litter and pollutants, for people, wildlife and beauty.

As the dark cloaked us, we switched on torches and became shining figures of luminosity - not so much litter warriors as litter angels! Our finds were mainly dropped food packaging and members reported less discarded masks, which is heartening. In addition, Rachel dug out a long plastic tube and Ben excavated a party's worth of abandoned bottles and cans. Bob found a fancy hair clip which he'll recycle for his daughters and Emma and Tav had an intriguing chat about whether a half full bottle of raspberry alcopop contained enough alcohol to be considered sanitised for consumption! Overall, we were surprised at the reduction of litter compared to our previous scan of the same stretch. We speculated the reasons - end of summer, previous litter sweeps etc - but we hoped it was a result of people's increased regard for their living space, for others and for the environment.

A final mention must go to Rachel's find of a stunning spider and web, suspended between vegetation on the river bank. This sparked some spider ponderings and some inept night time photography from Vanessa. Autumn is a great season to spot arachnids as it's their mating time and soon the hedgerows will be strung with pretty webs, glistening in the early dew - glorious! My research indicates our task spider was of the Orb variety (likely the Common Orb Weaver Spider), on account of the web pattern.

Finally, we gathered to deposit our sacks and remind Goodgymers of our next litter pick this Sunday, 20th September at Bluebottle Grove. Well done everyone for venturing out for our first truly dark task of the quarter. Perhaps we'll attack the car parks, skate parks and residential paths next time - ah the irony of rubbish scattered in sight of council bins!

Thank you and see you soon.