6 Goodgym Members and 5 Friends of Frenford joined forces to get this months foodbank picking and packing done.

We all worked together like a well oiled machine and got the job done in no time.

A massive welcome to our two newbies Melanie and Simone who turned up full of enthusiasm and energy, they took to the job like ducks to water and seemed to really enjoy it too. Kudos also to Peter and Sharon for giving up some of their valuable annual leave to be there and to Linda and Ed for keeping the shelves full.

With the weather being pretty decent, about 450 people popped down to Valentines Park for their parkrun fix.

Ed did his usual at the car park entrance. Linda was released from her usual guiding duties and enjoyed a run instead. James ran, joined Ed for a while and helped clearing up the funnel. Barcode scanning for me.

In 2 weeks time the busy 450 will seem like nothing - Valentines day falls on a Saturday...

The apricity of the day was not lost on us when 8 of us got together at Valentines Parkrun. Four of us volunteered, Sharon at the Boathouse, where the 2nd lappers and finishers need to go in different directions, Ed was in his usual carpark spot and Linda was VI supporter. The volunteer roster was surprisingly full so AJ chose to flit between Ed and Sharons posts, when they got busy, the others chose to run instead.

As AJ is not often in the country we then moved on for a sociable coffee and catch up at the local spoons.

Lovely having everyone together, looking forward to the next one.

Three of us assisted at Valentines Parkrun today. James was on scanning, Linda VI walker and Ed on Car Park duty.

Valentines is busier now due to Alphabeteers collecting their Vs now Victoria Dock has closed due to lack of vounteers. This illustrates the need for people to volunteer if we are to keep our parkruns going.

Linda assisted a visually and physically impaired person round Valentines parkrun course. Usually his guide dog assists him well enough but he likes to take the dog off the harness to give them occasional off duty time so Linda took over the dog's lead, the guide duties and the picking up the nasties 🙄 Meanwhile Ed did a sterling job of directing traffic coming in and out of the carpark across the route and cheering on the park runners.

5 of us helped out at Frenford Foodbank today. Frenford had been donated a lot of extra treats that had missed the pre Chirstmas packages. We set a volunteer the task of filling an extra bag of chocolates, biscuits and savoury snacks for each of the recipient families while old hands at the job Ed S. and Peter got on with packing the main body of the packages shortly joined by Natalie. Natalie is a newbie to our Frenford team, she quickly picked up on what was required and proved to be a very useful member of the team, hope to see her again soon 😊 Another welcome sight was Ed F. who came in apologising for coming in late to the session not realising that the new enthusiasm and energy of a later arrival is so welcome just as we are starting to flag. It also meant he was up for helping with some of the closing tasks. Great session, well done to all involved.

After our previous shelf filling session there were still a few items short at Frenford Food Bank. Another supermarket delivery was made with the items needed plus a few spares so Ed and Linda popped in to make sure it was all put away. We left with all shelves fully stocked and the extras safely stored away.