A Hub of Activity

I have been quite slack logging individual good deeds since Goodgym Oxford proper has been busy these last few months. Therefore, to keep my 100th good deed as low key as possible and before any additional national restrictions take effect, I have grouped them together here:

As part of Oxford Together, I am still in close contact with a young family in Northway, for whom I do regular (once or twice a week) shopping trips for. This usually entails shopping for everyday staples such as bread, milk, fruit and veg, utilising healthy food vouchers but this can sometimes include larger trips for ingredients for cakes or a big family Sunday roast dinner. Sometimes, there are additional trips to the Marston chippy for a Tuesday night treat or on Thursday, there was a mad dash for pumpkins to carve and Halloween-themed sweets for the children with them on half-term holidays from school.

Although frequency has diminished, I still try to make myself available for prescription runs and there was one this week to an elderly lady in Northway. She was very thankful for the delivery from a pharmacy elsewhere in the city and was interested in the Phone Links provision from Oxford Hub so we chatted about that a little bit when I dropped off the prescriptions. I have been coordinating one of the "pods" for the Phone Links since March and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This has involved matching volunteers to referrals (individuals who might be isolating or require some moral/emotional support via conversations over the phone) and helping provide guidance to the volunteers, deal with any problems that might arise and advertise training for volunteers such as from Samaritans or Active Oxfordshire ("Helping People become Physically Active"). Whilst a low time commitment with occasional training, contacting isolating individuals or catching up with volunteers or Oxford Hub staff, it has become a critical service for so many who require a friendly voice to speak with to receive clear guidance on the situation or for isolated individuals to just to have a chin-wag, COVID or no COVID.

My involvement with Oxford Hub has increased. I started regularly doing volunteer shifts at OxUnboxed in July. OxUnboxed is a plastic-free refill shop where people can bring their empty jars or containers to fill up on pasta, rice, cereals, popcorn, lentils and a whole range of other organic food products. There is also laundry detergent, hand soap and loose-leaf tea available to buy, making it a very affordable and eco-friendly way to do the weekly shop for essentials. Volunteering involved doing a few hours a week to sell products to those coming in and to advertise the wide range of activities Oxford Hub do in the city. It was a small task but the shop has grown since I started and I hope to volunteer where I can in the future.

Finally, the small patch of ground I was kindly offered to look after at Marston Community Garden allotments has been thoroughly de-weeded, covered with cardboard and compost and safely left ready to get planting stuff next year. Both myself (and my partner) will be keen and eager to maintain this next year to provide some food for local residents as part of the community project and added a small Goodgym trademark to name the plot (top right).