3 benefits of music for mental wellness:

1. Elevates mood
2. Eases stress
3. Stimulates memories
4. Encourages movement and exercise
5. Builds a sense of belonging in a group

240 volunteer hours this month. Thank you.

Forty-one of you showed up across four Saturdays — sorting at the pantry, driving routes, sitting with families in the waiting room. That is the highest month since we started tracking, and it happened in the quietest part of the year.

October sign-ups open Monday. The Tuesday evening shift is the one we struggle to fill, so if weekday evenings work for you, that is where you are most needed.

What we found at Saturday’s health fair

We screened 312 people in six hours. Ninety-four had a blood pressure reading in the hypertensive range, and fifty-one of them did not know.

Every one of those fifty-one left with a follow-up appointment already booked. That is the whole point of doing this in a church hall instead of a clinic — nobody has to decide whether it is worth the trip.

If you missed it, the cuff-lending programme is still running. Ask at the desk.

Sat with Philippians 4:19 again this morning. “Shall supply all your need” — not all my wants, and not on my timetable. Took me a long time to stop reading that as a disappointment.

Meal number 50,000 went out this morning.

It was a chicken and rice plate, handed to a regular named Walter who has been coming since the second week we opened. He asked what the fuss was about.

Five years, eleven months. Two hundred and six volunteers on the rota. One walk-in freezer that has broken down four times and been fixed four times by the same retired engineer who refuses to be thanked publicly, so I will not name him here.

Volunteer sign-ups for the food drive close on Friday — two slots left on the morning shift.