Bobby Gangar and Judith Goodman

Our volunteers of the week this time are Bobby Gangar and Judith Goodman. Bobby and Judith have been nominated for the fantastic work that they did over the Christmas period to enable the effective delivery of our meal services.

Bobby was leading the kitchen team at Bermondsey on Sunday 27th. He arrived at the kitchen to discover that the shoppers had been unable to purchase most of the meat, and some of the other ingredients, that were needed for the menu. Rather than panic, Bobby, with the assistance of kitchen assistant Jeremy Heard, went out shopping for the remaining ingredients. A small tweak to the menu, to make it more compatible with the food that they were able to purchase, meant the food still went out before noon. A remarkable feat given the significant delay that having to go shopping first thing in the morning caused to the service.

Bobby has been a volunteer with The Food Chain since December 2007, helping out as both a kitchen assistant and kitchen lead at our Bermondsey kitchens.

Judith has helped out with various activities over Christmas. Firstly, she helped our lead cook with the shopping on Christmas Eve, before mucking in with some food preparation that evening. She then helped to transport volunteers to the kitchen on Christmas Day, followed by some more food preparation. More shopping was to follow on Boxing Day, when many of the large supermarkets were closed and a lot of time was required to visit a lot of smaller shops. A sterling Christmas effort was topped off with another stint of kitchen help on 27th.

Judith has been a volunteer with The Food Chain since December 2001. Not only has Judith been our longest serving rota coordinator (as many of you will know), but she is also regularly seen on the delivery rota at Kentish Town.

A big thanks to both of you.