A task triptych

This week we were all set for a 6pm litter pick around the South Park and Cowley areas on Wednesday evening, but at 12:41pm we received an SOS from Oxford Mutual Aid. They were seeking help for an emergency food parcel delivery for a person who had completely run out of food, and a dash to the supermarket for another client who is self-isolating. Much as we love the satisfaction of a litter pick, food drops definitely felt like they should be our priority.

Fortunately, our enthusiastic GoodGym team had turned out in force, so we were able to divide and conquer!

Rob and Aoife donned super hero capes (figuratively, although I do wish we had some to issue!) and set off to collect an emergency food parcel and deliver it to OX1.

Superstars Cassy and Ffion took the shopping list and braved Cowley Tesco, with an extra detour to Co-Op for an elusive aubergine, before delivering all the goodies to a grateful recipient in Cowley.

Everyone else grabbed litter pickers and yellow litter bags and set off in 3 different directions to clean up the streets of East Oxford. Teams headed up Morrell Avenue, out along Cowley Rd and Manzil Way, and along the edge of South Park and up Cheney Lane, with a rendez-vous point at Warneford Lane. We found masks aplenty, the usual hot spots of cans and bottles around benches, coffee cups, crisp packets - so far so normal.

Tonight's oddest litter find: a whole toilet which Stu found tucked behind a tree on Cheney Lane.

If the chat in the WhatsApp group is anything to go by there were some quirky conversation topics underway as we plogged! I always an enjoy our slightly unusual chatter.

Warm welcome to Jocasta who joined us tonight for her first GoodGym Good Deed.