Another Monday morning helping out at the North Finchley Community Grocer!

A quick cycle over to lend a hand with the weekly delivery. This time it was milk, protein shakes, tomatoes, mangos and plenty of other goodies. Our job was simple: wait for the van, unload the food and get everything safely into the shop, ready to be sorted and redistributed.

Straightforward work, but a valuable way to support a fantastic local initiative that helps people access affordable food while reducing waste.

A little effort goes a long way, and it’s always good to lend a hand. Why not join us next time? It’s a community mission you really can’t afford to miss!

Another great start to the week with a short jog and some weight training. This time, the delivery was already there as I jogged up, so I got stuck in immediately, unloading: dips, bananas, oranges, cucumbers, tandoori yoghurt drinks, salads, milk, cream and lots more.

By the time Mohamed made it, the delivery was done and stuff away in the storage cupboards, so we had a quick chat about how it works and the training video he'll need to watch for heavy lifting if he makes it next time, but we'll hopefully see him before then, at tomorrow's Bull Theatre session.

Mango, mango, mango!

We were back at the Community Grocer in North Finchley for our regular Tuesday community mission. The weather wasn’t great, but it gave us extra motivation to get the food off the lorry and into the dry, before moving it safely into the shop ready for redistribution.

This week there were plenty of spring onions and mangoes among the delivery. A satisfying bit of teamwork, helping good food reach local people rather than go to waste.

Get yourself down there and save some food! Or join us at a future session to lend a hand.

Another Monday delivery, this time with Filip and Chloe helping stack, sort and wash the produce. The brilliant Volunteers on Wheels van arrived almost bang on 10am, so we were ready to go.

This time, we unloaded: lots of cans of fizzy drinks, some weird soup thing to go in the fridge and loads of fresh fruit and veg. Tangerine season is upon us, plus the usual potatoes, carrots, pears and even some lettuce, made for a healthy delivery. The grocery was buzzing, great to see them thriving into the start of their second year.

Another fun start to the week, Paul, Gus and I rocking up early. But the Brent Cross traffic had the lovely delivery team from Volunteers on Wheels stuck at a crawl and they only arrived just before 11am. Undeterred, we went at it double time, running trolleys down the ramp, unloading the van and pushing things back up to the shop team to sort. And then we were done, though I stuck around for 15min more to help move some produce into the stores.

This week we saw: leeks, potatoes, butternut soups, smoothies, bottled and canned drinks, mushrooms (inc. mushrooms growing on mushrooms, which had to be discarded but were a nice ecological novelty!), sweet potatoes, soda bread and a lot more I missed in the speed. Some of it will be going in stores for their big first birthday party celebrations this Wednesday, so they can give things away as raffle prizes and have extra on hand for the increased visitors. We'll be popping along around lunchtime!

Well, a slightly disappointing session this one because we all arrived just as the delivery van was finishing up. Paul was first and managed to help push a couple of trolleys, but Subham and I arrived just at the start time to find they were packing up and going. And it was a small enough delivery the grocery team decided they didn't need any help inside.

Paul had Gus with him and needed to go to something else, but Subham and I decided to make the most of the weather, grabbed a coffee, then walked to the Glebelands Open Space, where we did some of the outdoor exercise trail before heading home. Next week, hopefully there'll be more lifting!