YOU KNOW BY NOW...

...where I go and what happens every Thursday!

We had a great time at the Community Fridge this morning although the weather wasn’t that kind - in fact, at times, the rain came down in Biblical proportions, but still the people came!  

Beforehand, I usually go round and take some photographs, and I was spoilt for choice today.  We had lots of good produce today - pak choi, avocados, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, clementines, apples and mushrooms together with a large quantity of baked goods and bread. 

We were also privileged to have our very own dinosaur, Megasaurus, as you can see from the middle of my collage today.  Here is our own Meg, who like many of the other volunteers, does tremendous work collecting food from various supermarkets and most weeks you will find her on the door, squirting hand sanitiser onto people’s hands as they come in, giving them bags to put their five items in and generally keeping up the spirits of those in the queue, especially on rainy days like today.  She is always “a great hit” with the children and often has bars of chocolate or packets of sweets for them and to be fair, is a great hit with the adults too and keeps them amused.  

Yesterday she told me she had been to Weston-Super-Mare for the day and had bought these glasses, which should have been sunglasses, but she had obviously taken out the plastic so that her own glasses showed through.  She then asked me to try and attach them to the side of her glasses, so that she could still see - she is a real card and works so hard.  I must say that the choice of name was her own, so I am not maligning her in anyway.  You can see a close up of the dinosaur that was on the side of the glasses, and which caused some hilarity, as you can imagine.

As well as the produce, we had snack packs of biscuits, cheese and ham - and you can see H at the bottom of the collage, having made a mega sandwich of them, trying to get it into her mouth!  She did manage it, in case you were wondering.

I was sad to see that the pack of broken gingerbread men was still on the table when we were clearing up - and as someone said, “Broken gingerbread men still taste as good” but obviously there were no takers - such as shame!

We had some good conversations and there was a lot of banter - as I have said before, I think that aside from taking their five items when they come, our customers are also pleased to meet up with friends they have made since coming to the Community Fridge and there was a good atmosphere today.  We were also fortunate to have two new volunteers, both Church Members, who came to chat to people in the café and they seemed to enjoy being part of this group.

We are always grateful to a few of the men, who are actually customers, but who willingly stay to help clean the tables and then put them and the chairs away so that the hall is clear for the Pram Club to use tomorrow morning.  

It is such a privilege to be a volunteer at the Community Fridge - although it can be tiring - but it’s good to know we make a difference in our community.  We have a Church Meeting this evening, so we will be back at the Church for 7.30 - so I’m not sure how much commenting I will be doing.

Thank you for your supportive comments about the Community Fridge week by week - I know that at least one other Blip friend helps at her own church in this way - and whilst it is sad that these places are needed in this day and age, we are so blessed to be in a position to help.  

Have a tremendous Thursday!  M xx