Five of GGR's finest arrived to help out at Frenford Foodbank.

Linda and Ed arrived early to set up. They were soon joined by last minute and very welcomed sign up Kathryn who helpfully brought along her Mum to assist us. We also welcomed back our Helena who can't always get to food bank but is always a valuable member of the team when she does. Last but not least AJ came to celebrate her 200th good deed with us. In keeping with tradition (which began with her 100th) she started with a spillage 🙄😂.

Along with the Frenford volunteers we all worked alongside each other helping one another out and getting the job done by lunchtime so 50 local households will be a little better off for it. We even had time to have a little tea break with the usual party guest Colin🐛.

With the supermarket delivery already offloaded and Ed and Linda coming in early to set up the cages we were ahead of the game at Frenford Food Bank this week. Sadly the printer was not so on the ball and we had a little wait for the orders to be produced.

Time to do a little extra shelf filling and for Linda to try on a jacket which AJ was passing on from one of her stewarding volunteer sessions. It fit perfectly which is not surprising as you can see from the photo we are practically twins. 😂 While taking that photo Liz accidentally took a photo of her foot which came in handy as a 'before' photo...see below for explanation.

Pretty soon we were picking and packing at a rate of knots. It was really hot despite having all the doors open and there were some pretty pink faces around. We were about to stop for a tea break when Liz dropped a pack of tuna tins on her foot which Linda found hilarious ...until she saw the blood 😳(sorry Liz) like the trooper she is Liz was back up and packing again as soon as she was cleaned up and plastered. Things were going so well and we thought we were finished early but were asked to hang on as more orders had come in so we had a little pause for flapjacks and other treats then finished off the last few while Ed started restocking the shelves and it wasn't too long before we were done.

Our Marie and Helena told us that they wont be coming to sessions for a while due to other commitments, they have both been such valuable members of the team we will miss them but wish them well on their separate ventures.

All in all another successful mission under our belts.

What a lovely lot of volunteers we had signed up today. Welcome to our newest member Victoria (likes to be known as Tors) and to Sevan a more seasoned GoodGymmer who came all the way from Ealing to add Redbridge to his list of GG boroughs visited. Frenford Foodbank had been let down on deliveries with some supplies arriving late and others not turning up at all. Linda and Ed decided to forgo the task of having everything set up early to go in search of rice, 5 Supermarkets later they'd managed to "score" 84kgs and arrived 5 minutes late 🙈 to find other volunteers ready and waiting.

There was then a flurry of activity where things were put on shelves, cages shifted about, admin sorted and bagging station set up. We had the briefest instruction session and we were off finally doing the picking and packing we set out to do. As this was the last session before Easter chocolate eggs and other treats were added for families with children.

Despite the time used for other tasks before the packing we still managed to get 35 of the 57 packages done before most people needed to leave. Luckily a couple were able to stay on and finish the rest.

Good Job Everyone 🥳🤩

We certainly were on a roll at Frenford Food Bank this week. With one of the Supermarket deliveries not showing up and having a good number of volunteers we had finished the advertised task mega early 🥳.

The rest of time allocated was well used getting ahead of the game. Peter portioned up the tea bags, Helena and Michael regrouped the toilet rolls, Linda cut boards to use as crate lids, Ed sorted and dated the biscuits and AJ had a cup of tea...😂...thats not fair she actually made her self very useful reoganising shelves 😁.

A lot of worthwhile jobs done and we still finished a bit early. Nice work GGR.