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.