Jo

A very wet one today, delivering food to members of thecommunity from the ever-brilliant WaterHouse Restaurant :)

Thanks again for organising Joel, and my partner in (delivery) crime Jo! Lovely to see Tom and Lucy as well, great job crew!

Peace out x

An amazing partnership with the Shoreditch Trust!!

We pick up parcels from the Waterhouse Restaurant at 11:20 and route will take around an hour to deliver about 10 parcels. Ruck sacks and panniers would be helpful!

We will be delivering food parcels to members of our community who are seriously ill, recovering from a stroke or usually rely on carers family or friends because they are unable to prepare food themselves. cannot safely visit a food bank because of mobility problems, risks to their health or risks to someone they provide care for. are without friends and family to drop off shopping. are homeless, and living in temporary accommodation with no kitchens, or shared facilities which are unsafe for them to use.

We really need your help to make these deliveries so be great to have you along!! Best ways to get about on the delivery routes will be walking or bikes! Might get a bit messy running!! We will get routes the day before and will pair you up with another GoodGymer or 2.

If you would like to be in pair group with someone in particular let me know at joel@goodgym.org. Once we have pairs sorted I will open up listing to allow groups of 3. If you would prefer to do delivery solo just let me know.

Any problems on the day message me (Joel) on 07895628708.

Only after signing up for the mission did I realise I was not only out of my GG area but totally out of my comfort zone! At the meet up point we're volunteers from other organisations as well as GoodGym people &I needed not have worried, as the staff compiling the eats welcomed us with smiles and even mini croissants! (see pic*) They gave us the packages and we paired up and were on our way in short order.
I hadn't done this task before so I was paired up with Jo who had and had met some of the recipients in the past. Walking &talking (masks on of course) was great therapy and as we only had 5 deliveries to drop off, it took less than an hour. Must admit if it hadn't been for Jo it would have probably taken me ages - I have a poor sense of direction! * Volunteers in pic not from Good Gym and kindly gave permission to be used in this report.

Arriving Julia and Jo were first to arrive and were put to work straight away carrying boxes of donated food from reception into a room at the back of the building. Katrin ran into some travelling problems but joined them soon after, and Linda arrived after her doctor's appointment and got stuck in straight away!

Redbridge welcomes Katrin and Jo from other GG areas - it was great to have you ladies! Hope to see you soon again!

Sorting Gifts - gender neutral? It was fantastic to see so many donated gifts, lots of bags from kind hearted people! We had to organise them all and here is where we encountered an unexpected problem, when we attempted to divide toys into girls/boys categories!

A discussion on gendered toys and everyone's different perception on what girls vs boys would prefer provided an interesting topic of dicussion, diplomacy was maintained at all times and we all agreed that what really counted is that kids will get gifts so we sped things up by sorting the toys by categories, which worked out quite well!: books, games, sports, soft toys, dinosaurs and dragons, pink section, brainy puzzles, superheros and arts&crafts.

Cakes! Lovely Gen provides us with a cuppa and some sweet delights to say thank you and to keep the energy levels up! They were absolutely delicious and we were very grateful for this lovely surprise:)

Well done everyone for showing up and doing good!