We had a very wholesome evening in the Oxgrow garden at Hogacre Common.

The community garden is in the process of installing a new irrigation system, which will make watering the garden during dry spells SO much easier. Instead of having to go to and fro from one water source wherever you are in the garden it will soon be possible to just go a few yards to one of many water troughs, making it quicker and less effort to keep the garden watered. All the troughs and pipes were laid out around the garden, but the pipes needed burying - sounds like the perfect job for a GoodGym flash mob!

We grabbed spades, gave a little thanks for the rain earlier in the day which had softened the ground nicely, and got to work digging trenches, laying the pipes in and recovering them (always one or two turf squares leftover at the end however hard you try to figure out how they came out!). We even dug our way through a mound to lay the piping, and despite calls for an axe managed to get the job done with spades, forks and muscles. We managed to get all the long sections of pipe buried, leaving just the joints to sort out. That progress will make it possible for the OxGrow team to mow and strim some of the grass from around the growing beds to keep it from taking over while they figure out the best way to bury the joints in the pipes.

With not quite enough spades to go around the rest of the team set to work weeding the raised beds . Dogging out thistles, detangling bind weed, trying to get to the bottom of dandelion roots. Along the way we enjoyed seeing the asparagus, chard and onions coming up.

Simon from Oxgrow kindly harvested chard, sorrel and a variety of herbs for all of us to take some greenery home after the task. Sorrell = suprisingly tart-tasting but great stirfried.

3 GoodGym teams enjoyed an evening of trivia at the White House by Tap Social. Alongside the usual 'General Knowledge', and 'Film and TV', more unusual rounds included "Name that Drag Queen" and "Unfamous siblings of famous people". The Eel on Musk Rats came joint first, only losing out in a tie-breaker game of Rock Paper Scissors. A warm welcome to all the first-timers who joined and we hope to see you again soon!

With the cost of living rising inexorably the demand for the food bank has never been higher.

Yesterday we finished up packing the regular food parcels for the afternoon van delivery round, then turned our attention to the 11 emergency requests for food support. With similar numbers of food parcels going out 7 days a week it's obvious that a large number of people are really struggling to get by.

Big thank you to those who jumped in to help at short notice yesterday - we couldn't have done it without you. Could've done without the pigeon choosing to join us in the hall too though!

Welcome to GoodGym Sylvie Anne - lovely to meet you!

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.