well done everyone!

10 GoodGymers 16 Nepalese community 14 RHILC and friends 1 Lenthal Road Allotments 1 friends of Rivermead including 5 kids!

42 people set out on a very sunny Saturday to clean Iffley and Rose Hill We covered all the streets and the recreation ground, Rivermead nature reserve, Lenthal road allotments

We’re pleased to say many streets are relatively littler free. However many patches still have bags of it!!

Thank you to everyone who took part and helped our community with OXClean 2022 and Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon Group

welcome Laura to GoodGym

It's Wednesday, but not as we've come to know it over the last couple of months. These days we're back to being really busy on a Wednesday afternoon at the Oxford Mutual Aid food bank.

With the cost of living rising inexorably the demand for the food bank has never been higher. Yesterday we had all the usual regular food parcels to prepare, but there were also 24 emergency requests for food support.

Last week's Oxford Mutual Aid stats (read them and weep):

• 147 households requested emergency support. (348 people).
  
  • 28 referrals came in from other organisations, charities and statutory bodies including adult social care, city and county councils and housing associations.
    
  • 330 Households received their regular weekly parcel of essential supplies, baby products and kitchen collective meals.

Welcome to GoodGym Sophie - really nice to meet you!

Battling sideways rain, gale force winds and a sprinkling of fake snow, two teams of hardcore Goodgymers took to the streets of Oxford. Litter was picked, wild card bingo items were ticked off and chats were had.

We admired the famous sights of Oxford, marvelled at a very dramatic full moon and said hello to Mr Tumnus. A fleet of vintage cars was an unexpected surprise due to the new Wonka film set being in situ in the town centre.

Points for creativity to the team interpreting 'Heart Decorations' as decorating Julia within a heart of GoodGymers arms. ♥ Ritzy-est item was the red vintage car.

A good time was had by all, plenty of litter was collected, and cake for Vicky’s birthday was a welcome reward at the end. With both teams achieving a Full House it was only fair that the winner's prize went to the birthday girl.

*The Scavenger Hunt Rules: *

• You can go anywhere within the ring road as long as you’re back by 7:30pm
  
• Must get at least 2 items from each list
  
• Photograph your finds as proof
  

LITTER PICK:
* Crisp packet
* Cigarette butt
* Coffee cup (will allow just lid)
* Energy drink can
* Fast food wrapper
* Face mask
* Glass bottle
* Alcohol container
* Plastic bag (dog poo bag permitted)
* Piece of clothing – 5 BONUS points for pants

WILD CARDS:
* Pub or café with Rose in the name
* Group photo at the Bridge of Sighs
* Heart decorations
* Daffodils (5 BONUS points if we planted them)
* Photo of a life-sized animal sculpture/statue/model (mythical beasts allowed)
* Selfie at a Harry Potter filming location (a point for each one)
* Something red

Happy Birthday Vicky!

Oxford Mutual Aid is a grassroots network which was established, like many similar groups, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their practices are rooted in Mutual Aid principles - that only when we share and redistribute, and support each other, will everyone in our community have access to the resources they need. The food bank is a 7 days per week operation, almost entirely run my volunteers, redistributing food to people who are struggling across Oxford.

Last week OMA delivered food parcels to 670 people in 238 households, including 390 adults, 210 children and 70 babies. These are people who receive food support from the food bank every week. In addition to the regular deliveries they also provided 22 food parcels to people experiencing homelessness rehoused at the YHA Oxford, and supported approximately 30 households through their work with the Syrian Sisters and Oxford Asian Women’s Voice.

Requests for emergency help with food continue to be worryingly high. 105 Emergency food parcels were supplied to 258 people between Monday and Sunday last week.

Our regular Wednesday shift has been a little quieter for parcel packing in the last couple of weeks thanks to some reorganisation of delivery routes, so this week we were asked to finish prepping the Wednesday evening deliveries and then make a start on getting the food parcels ready for Thursday. The daytime shifts are usually a bit lower on volunteer numbers, so getting ahead by preparing the tins, bread, dried goods, fruit and vegetables the night before takes the pressure off the Thursday morning team.

Well done everyone, particularly our less experienced and new parcel-packers. There's a lot to take in for this task and you all did a great job!

Welcome to GoodGym Laura and Ruby.