For a handful of years we have had regular sessions throughout autumn and winter doing a deep clean of the Oxford Mutual Aid food bank in Cowley. The day-to-day operations of food bank leave little time for the kind of thorough clean which involves moving shelving and crates, so we try to lighten the load for their regular volunteers by taking on this task.

We tackle a section of the main hall each month (where toiletries, baby supplies and ambient food are stored), and make sure that the whole kitchen gets a clean every month (which is where the fresh fruit and veg is stored). It's an "all hands on deck" operation, involving moving stock, shifting shelves and crates, sweeping, mopping, dusting, and bleaching.

Session one of AW 2024/5 now complete!

Welcome to GoodGym Sasha and Max!

Last night we finished our 'spring' clean of the Oxford Mutual Aid foodbank.

Throughout autumn and winter we deep clean the main hall one section per month, and a do a thorough clean and sort of the kitchen every month. We've clearly got pretty efficient at this now, as we finished the task last night; a month ahead of schedule!

Last night we stomped the streets around Florence Park delivering flyers for Oxford Mutual Aid. The OMA food bank are recruiting for more volunteers, particularly people to deliver food parcels, so we went house-to-house with their information leaflets. Hopefully they will have an influx of new helpers as a result.

It was a chilly night so we regrouped at The Jolly Postboys pub at the end to warm up.

Welcome to GoodGym Jonah!

congratulations on reaching the 10 Good Deeds milestone Imogen!

2 task Wednesday!

A trio of GoodGymers headed into the Asian Cultural Centre to help with the fortnightly community meal supplied by the Oxford Homeless Project. They made tea and served cake to the guests who were eating, then helped clear up and chatted to the guests.

The rest of the team scattered across the streets of Cowley litter picking. We did a thorough clean up along Manzil Way, including ferreting under hedges for hard-to-reach items and a whizz around the playground. A breakaway group made it all the way to Morrel Avenue. We picked up 6 full sacks of trash.

November Autumn/Winter clean at the Oxford Mutual Aid.

This month we moved crates and racking in the lower central part of the main hall to clean that area. The ever-intrepid Ben scaled a ladder to sweep many years of accumulated cobwebs off the end window. Add to that the regular kitchen clean, fridge scrub and fresh-food check, and we made light work of our monthly 'spring' clean task.

We divided between two tasks last night, but both had the same theme - making sure people can access food whatever their personal circumstances.

5 GoodGymers helped serve and clear up at Oxford Homeless Project's evening meal.

This was Oxford Homeless Project's first community meal in over 3 years, and with a switch from Monday lunch to Wednesday evening it was hard to know whether the word would get out quickly. But it did, and the atmosphere was lovely, the food delicious and both volunteers and guests had a fun and friendly evening.

11 GoodGymers pounded the streets to deliver leaflets recruiting volunteer delivery drivers for the Oxford Mutual Aid food bank.

The rest of our lovely team set off along the streets of Cowley to deliver hundreds of leaflets for our pals at Oxford Mutual Aid Food bank. Streets were pounded, flyers delivered, and we got judgey about letter flaps again.

Lovely to have you along to GoodGym Oxford Cat.