At a time when the most vulnerable in our communities will need our support more than ever, SOFEA (South Oxfordshire Food and Education Alliance) is planning to expand its Community Larder network to provide free groceries to as many people as possible.

This means delivering hundreds of tonnes of packets and tins, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables to those who find themselves in need.

They plan to use their existing distribution network and expand it, so that they can offer food free to members of local communities.

To do this they need our support. They need able bodied healthy symptom free people to volunteer to help them with what will be a massive logistical exercise.

They have suspended membership fees to the Community Larder in order to ensure everyone who needs it can access free food. They have set up a Justgiving page and would welcome donations to help cover the cost of giving free membership. You can access this page through the link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sofeacommunitylarder

They had planned to start supplying people in Abingdon and have brought this forward and will be starting tomorrow (Friday 20th March).

The Kennington Memory Club is a local day centre where people with a diagnosis of dementia can meet in a safe, friendly, supportive environment for company and interesting activities. Its members come from a wide area round Kennington ,including Abingdon, Cumnor, Steventon and Bayworth.

Activities are tailored as much as possible to members’ interests and skills but a typical day might be:
• Arrival & welcome
• Hot drink & biscuits
• Gentle chair exercises
• Games e.g. Skittles or Mini Golf
• Lunch
• Memory games e.g. Higher or Lower
• Hot drink & biscuits
• Music quiz including sing-a-longs
Sometimes guests come and run specific activities e.g. Pets as Therapy dog, or playing music.

In four weeks, when Spring is here, they have a Sale in St Nicolas Church, Abingdon. I will give a reminder nearer the date.

For information about the club, either volunteering or having a taster session, visit their website https://www.kenningtonmemoryclub.org.uk/.

After being boarded up following the fire in 2017, the Acacia UK shop, in Bath Street, Abingdon, has been rebuilt.

There are large notices in the 4 windows.

1. The opening will be on Saturday April 4th.
2. They will be taking donations Tuesday-Thursday between 10th March and 1st April.

3. A list of donations they would love to receive. ‘Please do not leave donations on the shop doorstep – this is what caused the fire!’

4. Thank you for all your support and donations …

In Lombard Street, in the centre of Abingdon, there is a Charity that takes you into the heart of the Sumatran rain forest.

Sumatra has lost a lot of its tropical rainforest through deforestation. One of the many species that is endangered is the Orangutan. The SOS Orangutans organisation want people to ‘Help us protect orangutans in the wild, where they belong.’

Visit https://www.orangutans-sos.org/ to see how people in Abingdon can help Orangutans in Sumatra.

Thankyou to Sumatran Orangutans Society – SOS – for the images taken by Andrew Walmsley.

On the Market Place on Wednesday a group of people from Radley Sports Centre were cycling as part of their Challenge Yourself in January – Radley’s Iron Man Challenge. Their distance on Abingdon Market Place was 112 miles.

They have set themselves targets for swimming, running, and cycling every day of January, and raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society. More on facebook.