Well done to everyone for the final FoodCycle of 2025 at Mitcham! A healthy turnout of 23 guests joined us for a truly festive send-off, enjoying a delicious meal of courgette & aubergine tempura to start, followed by a hearty Quorn roast Wellington with carrots, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and rich onion gravy. To finish, there were mince pies with ice cream which is the perfect sweet note to end the year on.

A brilliant way to close out 2025, full of good food, great teamwork, and community spirit. Thank you to everyone who’s volunteered, cooked, hosted, and supported throughout the year and see you in the new one!

At the end of a long day when there's a need to move items to storage post-event, the "young and active" reputation makes it difficult to decline a request. With the real challenge of mentally juggling entry codes and padlocks it wasn't long before everything was successfully loaded into the storage unit. We even managed to squeeze in a quick, well-earned drink before cycling off into the night.

The Little ARK event was in full swing on arrival, with plenty of festive bustle and ad-hoc tasks to tackle. We stayed busy moving benches and shifting furniture nearby before transitioning into the final pack-down, where it was all hands needed for some heavy lifting. The perfect workout to wrap up the week, leaving the space tidy and ending the Christmas fair season.

It's not possible to resist a last-minute SOS to help with an event setup after hearing that a key member of the Little ARK team was sidelined with a back injury, and honestly, not wanting to miss out on a personal "hat trick" of workouts for the day it was only right to head down to The Vault to see what needed doing.

Turned out plenty of lifting was necessary as the first 10 minutes was hauling boxes and getting the display tables sorted, which was basically just high-stakes Tetris with stands of various sizes. Then a few moments of creative awe while rummaging through the beautiful wares.

This session marks a surprising milestone that crept up, so the only appropriate reward was, naturally, confirming the next job ;) - whoop!

The final distribution cleanup of the year, and honestly, it was a bit of a mammoth task. Thankfully, a few of the regular distribution volunteers stayed behind to help. We spent a good chunk of time sifting through stacks of crates and bags of rubbish/recycling and creating some order to the chaos. Making the storage area extra clean and tidy for a fresh start for January, it was a solid workout to end the year.

A lunch break to help with The Open Table Christmas lunch. Starting with chatting to familiar faces before getting down to the serious business of clearing and vacuuming. There were lots of helpers today so it was all done fairly quickly and if course Henry was there to lend a hand.