The first community mission of the year at Foodbox in Brentford and it was great to be helping out the volunteers with a restock, after several months break without any corporate volunteers on site. Foodbox has been undergoing a restructure with the aim of ensuring any funds raised go as far as possible, helping more families and individuals in need.

The two regular volunteers named Jane welcomed myself and two groups of corporate volunteers. Jane #1 had set out all the refilling and stock checking that needed to be done. Jane was thrilled to see the foodbox a hive of activity and couldn’t believe how quickly we all got through the decanting of coffee, tea, flour, grains, washing powder and sugar.

As usual the challenge of trying to decant various stock into small cups kept me on my toes. Got to wear the Foodbox apron to protect myself from the mist of chappati flour and almost cycled off with it 😬

We have monthly sessions listed at the Foodbox all through the year. You may be helping to replenish stock or check food labels, or lending a hand outside the Foodbox to keep the site litter and weed free.

Goodgymers got out in March to clear their local green spaces and pavements of discarded litter.

A litter pickers work is never done sadly

Four goodgymers joined community members for a litterpick around Baron's Pond on an extra special sunny saturday morning.

We'd had a busy morning; Beth, Chris and Tish had taken part in parkrun, while I gave out finish tokens. This was Beth's 200th parkrun event which called for celebration and sweet treats.

A leisurely wander around the pond collecting discarded wrappers, bottles and cans ensued. With pistachio chocolates and cookies to fuel us we had soon filled several bags. Not to be deterred by the farthest to reach rubbish, armed with the longest litterpicker [8ft XXL and at least twice the size of Beth and me], Chris made light work of the job. So long litter!

Mr K was a bit stressed today as his good neighbour, Ms S, who helped him this morning book a boiler engineer, was moving out soon. She was on a call when I visited Mr K, who handed me the shopping list, money, his Nectar card and a shopping bag. It was not a good time for a chit-chat.

I bought everything from Mr K's list in Sainsbury's, including vine tomatoes - the regular ones - not the fancy-named new kind I spotted in the store. Majestic! That sounded so profound I was not sure who were those tomatoes marketed to. Royals?

Back in Mr K's flat, when we were putting groceries into the fridge, Mr K removed a slightly yellowish broccoli and wanted to throw it away. I declared I'd eat it, and Mr K said I was welcome to take it. I ran back home, where I cooked a clear-the-fridge style lunch, featuring the best-looking pieces of the rescued broccoli 🥦💫

No mossing around on today’s mission, as another a Goodgymer had recently visited and cleared between the slabs in Ms G’s back yard. So minimal need for old kitchen knife this time!

Today Ms G asked for help to clear the leaves that had fallen off the trees and started disintegrating into soil and dust through the winter. If there was time Ms G asked if I could tidy the small front yard too.

Several supermarket shopping bags (!) later the leaves and weeds we’re cleared away and Ms G attempted to barricade the lower part of the fence to stop the foxes getting in and doing their business.

With the beautiful camelias of Chiswick House blooming in GoodGym red, it must have been time for our visit back to help out with jobs in the garden!

This week we were met by George with an emergency job - GoodGymers assemble! The Kitchen Garden is due to open today but the team has just discovered that there is a dangerous lintel by the normal entrance which means the public can't use it for the time being. There is an alternative pathway in, but it has been neglected over the winter and become clogged with weeds. That's where we came in!

Our task for the evening was to clear the path of weeds, grass and other undesirables. We were given a demonstration on the various roles.and told that it was imperative that rakers take the lead and must stay ahead of the pack. they were followed by hoers and forkers. The choreography was everything.

With the light rapidly dropping we worked worked hard, fueled by discussions of books, travel and weekend races. A massive well done to Michelle, Florian, Alan, Steph and Matt for taking on the Queen of the Suburbs in tough conditions and for some epic running!

After 45 minutes of effort we had reached the end of the road. You can see what the path looked like before our hard work, but I wish I had a decent after shot to show you. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was path perfection!

Next week Michelle will be leading the group to help with the new season of planting for Hounslow Foodbox at Chiswick allotments. You can find the details here and sign up. We also have anice litter picking task at Baron's ponds this Saturday if you're ale to help out.