PLENTY OF LOVE...

...for everyone today at our Community Fridge.   Not only did we have lots of goodies on offer as you can see, but we also gave everyone a heart on which was written “God loves you”, and I noticed that some people had even attached them to the outside of their coats, which was great.

Of course, everyone loves Meg, who has glasses to match every occasion you could possibly think of - so she had to be in the centre of my collage today.  Meg is the first person that people see when they come in and she is the one with the “squirty” hand sanitiser and she also hands out the bags in which our customers put their items, new ones which have recently been made by Lesley, another one of our volunteers.  But that’s not all Meg does - she jokes with the customers who are waiting in the queue and always has a cheery word for everyone.  When it’s school holidays, and next week is half term, many of our customers bring their children, so again, Meg is always ready with a hug and a packet of sweets.  Meg always stays to clear up afterwards and I’m sure no-one can sweep a floor as good as she can!  She is a treasure and we all love her!

Many of our volunteers work in the background, because there is a lot of work to do, not only on the days we are open, but also in applying for grants, putting together the Bags of Hope, liaising with the various statutory bodies if someone is referred for a Bag of Hope, collecting food from many of our local supermarkets and a myriad other jobs.  However, most people don’t see that side of things, but just see the hall beautifully laid out on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Some of the other background jobs include decanting the hundreds of tea bags into smaller bags, which Jackie, one of our older volunteers does most weeks, putting KFC frozen food into bags to make a meal for three or four, sorting out the fridges and freezers and then at the end of each session, checking the temperatures and on a Thursday, they need to be completely cleared out and cleaned.  Today, one of the volunteers spent all morning decanting washing powder into smaller bags, either for those who come into the Community Fridge or to go into the Bags of Hope.  Not a job that everyone would enjoy, because washing powder can be rather “smelly”, in the nicest possible way, but one that needs doing to share it out so that lots of people can benefit. 

Today was the birthday of one of our customers, so she brought in a cake - which you can see at the top left and lots of people enjoyed a slice of gooey chocolate cake to wish her a Happy Birthday.  There was a lovely vibe in the hall today, all the more amazing since many of these people didn’t know one another until they started coming to the Community Fridge and now many of them are great friends.  How wonderful is that?

I had some great conversation and was able to share my faith with quite a few people today - and for those who were too late to get one of the large hearts, I was able to give them one of my own little wooden hearts, which was good and ensured that everyone had a heart today. 

I was rather intrigued by the way the boxes of Cornflakes were balanced precariously in the store room, so had to take a shot.  Above that is the wire basket which is in the Foyer so that as we come into Church on Sunday we can put donations in there to go into the Boxes of Hope project, and these then go into the 35 Bags of Hope that are distributed weekly - again by volunteers who work behind the scenes, most days of the week.

Speaking of working behind the scenes, we also provide Language, Money Management, Cookery and Craft Classes, and will soon be running Parenting and Positive Well-Being Courses, so lots more volunteers are involved - there is certainly no time to be bored!

Apologies for not commenting last night - I was tired when I got in from our Worship Group Practice and tonight we are going out for a meal to celebrate our older grandson’s 30th birthday, so sadly commenting will be rather sparse again today, but hope to catch up with you all soon.  Thank you for your understanding.  M xx