IT’S OUR BIRTHDAY!!

Far from hitting the terrible twos, tonight we celebrated in true Goodgym Oxford style by helping our local community and eating baked goods. In the last 2 years 2516 good deeds have been done by 238 runners (and walkers and cyclists). An amazing achievement, especially when you consider that half of this time we have been in the grip of a global pandemic!

It was so lovely to start our task in the light – actually seeing (half) of people’s faces was brilliant after what has seemed like a never-ending winter. It won’t be long until we are starting and finishing our evenings in the light – spring is a-springing!!

Oxford Mutual Aid recently featured on ITV news trying to highlight just how important the work that they do is. Demand for emergency food parcels and the general week-to-week deliveries are on the rise, and so the time that we give them is vital and gratefully received. OMA have paired with some wonderful local suppliers and restaurants; The Kitchen Collective, Taste Tibet, and most recently Syrian Sisters, all of whom provide delicious, nutritious meals which go out in the parcels we deliver. This week we delivered 40 regular and 4 emergency parcels. These deliveries helped 59 adults and several children and babies.

A huge thanks to Anwen and Martha for the delicious vegan treats and welcome to Esmee who chose an excellent evening to join us! We hope to see you again soon. A 'dedication to GoodGym' award has to go to Jessy for coming to help tonight despite being on crutches. Following in Aoife's hop-steps there!

And finally, many virtual pats on the back and foot rubs go to Rob who managed to drag himself along tonight despite finishing his amazing challenge of running 7 half marathons in 7 days to raise money for OMA. We think that you are brilliant, potty, but brilliant. Now go and have a nap!

A Sunday request for help saw 5 GoodGymers rock up to Kidlington on Monday afternoon to help Cherwell Larder.

We unloaded 4 vehicles full of food from Oxford Foodbank, stacked it away in the storage area, helped set up the stock in the main hall for market day on Friday, and portioned out chocolate covered bananas (possibly our stickiest job so far this year).

It was really interesting to see how Cherwell Larder work to tackle food poverty in North Oxford and surrounding villages. Their Friday market day is popular, with a couple of hundred people coming to the hall to select the food they need, and the larder also deliver supplies to 500 people, many of whom are shielding. They supply cooked meals, meal kits, and recipe suggestions alongside the regular food parcels. It's a very impressive operation!

Showing my age with the report title?!

Tonight we packed 43 parcels of food, cleaning products, toiletries and baby essentials (nappies, baby food, formula). Those parcels will support 61 adults in Oxford and their children, helping them to make it through another difficult week in lockdown. We delivered 31 parcels between us, with others collected by recipients or other OMA volunteers.

We're getting familiar with some of the Wednesday evening regulars now, and some are quite keen to chat. Tonight's feedback was gratitude for the flowers that we included in parcels a couple of weeks ago which serendipitously were delivered just a couple of days before the recipient's birthday, thanks for including lots of corned beef (a favourite), and a query about if we were Olympic athletes (slight disappointment that we're not).

Last week in total Oxford Mutual Aid packaged and delivered 205 regular food parcels, which reached 378 adults, 259 children and 36 babies, plus 51 emergency parcels . Through Kitchen Collective, they made 502 meals, delivering these to a total of 145 households. Taste Tibet, Wadham College and Jam Factory also helped make 370 additional meals this week.

It's great to be involved!

Welcome Holly and Ruth - great to have along on your first GoodGym evening!

Well done Anna for reaching 50 Good Deeds, and also to Alex for reaching the 10 Good Deed milestone.