Thank you very much for your support at Dulwich parkrun on 2026-01-31. Parkrun events rely on the considerable contribution that you make and we are most grateful.

Today three GG-ers were very much needed at Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre foodbank to assist the core team in delivery the service. The other two GG-ers assisted in setting up the session. Great teamwork makes the dream work!

Five GG-ers from across the boroughs banded together to set up the Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre foodbank ready for its customers. This is a fantastic project which supports 75-90 service users a week, and it was all hands on deck to get things ready this morning.

Tasks included carrying crates of food up from the store room, chopping cabbages, dividing bunches of bananas, decanting yoghurt into smaller tubs, weeding out the veg that was past its best, and creating eye-catching displays of the produce.

Today it was all about the bananas in preparation for Friday's foodbank session.

Brenda, Anastasia and Gosia attended a mission in Southwark today - Ms P needed help with moving out of her property (which will be soon taken down 🏗).

We arrived at 1 pm and buzzed 🔔 two times before her relative came in and made us realise that we were not buzzing at all 😆. We were then welcomed by Ms P in the ground floor kitchen 🍽 area.

First impression was that there was still a lot of furniture and stuff around the house and clearly a lot of work still to be done! We knew that we won't tackle all but we could still try our best 🫡 and also prioritise the tasks that require few pair of hands.

At first, we were tasked with taking out a washing machine. Befre doing that we needed to unplug it and also disconnect from the waterpipes (which brought a bit of thrill as we were nor sure if water was already disconnected or we are going to flood 💦 the kitchen). Once free, we pushed it outside of the house to a designated place right to the waste collection area 🗑. After that we tackled few more items from there and then moved to the first floor.

We have spent most of the time emptying the upstair bedroom 🛏. This included taking out a bed frame, chest of drawers, curtains, a number of boxes 📦📦🗃 full of papers and stuff. Some of them were to be kept, some of them to be taken outside. What was incredibly useful was an inbuilt lift inside the house which Ms P - who uses a wheelchair - typically used to move around the house. We used it to transport items (especially the heavier ones 🏋‍♀️).

We were also given a special mission of taking down a lamp shade. Nimble Anastasia stood on the bed to unscrew it along with the bulb 💡. The shade went to the bin but we have put back the bulb which still worked (!) even after an accidental fall 😆.

We then moved to the bathroom and were asked to take whatever we can straight to the bin. Nothing unusual to report other than the bag that seemed very sturdy didn't cope that well with the load and one of it's handles snapped when we were going down the stairs. All under control 👌 and after few moments were were back on track with the move.

Throughout the task we had a little helper 🧒(maybe Ms P grandson) who also moved some of the things out as well as showing of with his toys 🧸🪀 and very cool trainers 👟 (with a small light at the back).

We tried to keep the waste area tidy and do not obstruct the parking area. In a short time the space became pretty crowded so at some point we did a bit of reshuffle to keep them compact and neat 🧹.

We said our goodbye 👋 after finishing with the bathroom. Ms P was very grateful for our help and wished us very well.

Before leaving the property, Anastasia had a great idea to take the hangers (that were planned to be binned) to the near charity shop so they can make use of them to present the clothes for sale.