It’s not just out of date...it’s M&S out-of-date!

Nine, fine GoodGym runners made their way to Waterloo, on foot, by car and by train from as far afield as Manchester and Runcorn.

Carol carried out the most important task first, making sure everyone had a hot cuppa to warm them up...it was a cold, dark, misty evening after all.

Then it was up to Jo, Sam and Matthew to demonstrate a few yoga moves, before finally getting down to some food sorting.

The room storing the foodbank donations was not large; dozens of food trays, several push bikes (including a tandem), two billiard tables, a cot, table football, Christmas decorations, stacks of large interlocking foam mats and almost a dozen mini trampolines were all vying for a space. Add nine energetic GoodGymers, and the room became even cosier...but at least the temperature became a little warmer.

Our first task was to go through every item in every tray, check the dates and sort them accordingly. Soon, we had twelve trays holding food with an expiry date of 2020, one tray per month. Eimear was soon into the swing of things and John did a grand job taking out of date items out of the room, to give us more space.

Once all of the items were arranged by date order, we began to refine our sorting and before long had full trays of soups, rice pudding, beans and spaghetti, to name but a few. The tower of pasta soon rivalled the Christmas puddings, and the kitchen has enough custard to sink a ship.

Fortunately we had Tim to call upon when there was help needed with heavy lifting (I think we all had Char's voice in our head as we moved the trays around - bend with your knees, not your back...help each other, don't lift heavy things on your own).

Finally, we were able to put all of the 2020 foodstuff in a more accessible space, so that volunteers and kitchen staff can find things more easily, and safely.

It felt good to stand back and see what a huge difference we had made, and to know how much it will help the fantastic work at the Waterloo Centre to run a little more smoothly.

...and to finish, we had an impromptu musical interlude from Sam.

A big GoodGym welcome to Linda on her first GoodGym mission, and thanks for her role as photographer and date writer.

I've an idea that we may be asked back some time in the near future...