Dating tips: always keep 2 metres apart

Today we go to the help Colchester Foodbank. A Foodbank that has been around for 12 years and aims to be a service that is no longer needed. It wants a town (and a county, country, world) in which people can afford food. In wants to be rid of poverty. It, like Goodgym, wants to connect communities and make people more equal. It does not want food poverty but will always be there to help if there is. And there is.

**7,000 People in crisis fed last year with ​three-day emergency food supplies

2008 We have been helping people in the Colchester area for over a decade.

1 IN 5 of the UK population live below the poverty line (Colchester Foodbank website 2020)

Whatever your political views or ideology, if you read this please use every ounce of empathy you can muster to imagine having to rely on a foodbank to feed yourself and your children and how that magnifies itself during a pandemic. Wow, got a bit emotional there.

I am writing this part just before Goodgymers start to make their way down (individually) to the foodbank to learn how to volunteer there and run the warehouse if needed. Due to Coronavirus the uncertainty in society is deafening. Mike Beckett – who runs the foodbank - is the most proactive man. He even anticipated a growth in foodbank users due to politics e.g. Brexit and made preparations. He and his team are ready for whatever gets thrown his way. Goodgym will help and nine of us are ready to go and be trained to run a foodbank (Social distancing and hand-washing in mind)!

Goodgym as always has looked at this societal ‘problem’, this health pandemic, and just like with loneliness of older people and with charities who benefit from some extra help, made being useful in our community fun, accessible and worthwhile for us too.

Firstly it says so much about the volunteers that they chose to come and help. Many people who do not come to Goodgym often say "gosh, it is amazing what you guys do". Well yes...but it is also, easy, social, fun etc etc. But as we are all too aware life has changed and Coronavirus has put us all on edge. The numbers of deaths are scary and I totally understand if people do not want to come along. Let us return to the positives:

Goodgymers ran and cycled a variety of distances to get to the task - Ella and I ran just over 2km there and back. The sun was beating down...is this the Caribbean we live in?

It was great to meet so many more volunteers and regulars who are dedicated to the Foodbank and amazing to see some familiar faces. Is it me or is it weird now seeing people face to face? At a 2 metre distance of course!

We had a briefing outside whilst deliveries arrived - one in a rather sexy Aston Martin. What did we learn: Deliveries must be weighed-in and then sorted into categories e.g. vegetables, meat, treats, milk etc. Then they must be put on the relevant shelves in use-by-date order. The front shelves, in which Emily was stationed in the first shift, were for food packages going out soon and therefore anything going out of date soon was passed her way. And that is where the rest of us came in. Each aisle was given to an individual or co-habitants and away we went. sorting food by date.

With the sun, the fun, the chatter and the do-gooding it was nice to forget the 'C' word for a while...without getting too close.

Quote of the day was "wow, social distancing is hard for Goodgymers...we are all so huggy". Emily White!