Five GoodGymers met for a second day of helping The North Edgbaston Action Team clear a field they've acquired which is to be used by junior football teams and other activities. Yesterday, the guys had done a great job of pulling out the brambles and we carried on with the job.

We didn't complete the job but made a lot more progress today, which is even more impressive considering we did it all without power tools, and managed to clear away a lot of the brambles. As you can see from the pictures, I had a lot of fun with a rake - hence today's pun!

We have some way to go yet, but we are making excellent progress and it will look great when it is all pulled out. The guys from NEAT were telling us that they'll be using this space to plant some flowers and vegetables, and we hope to continue being involved with this task!

6 volunteers plogged around Highbury Park and filled 5 sacks of litter!

On the Saturday morning following the hottest day of the year, 6 volunteers met in the car park of Highbury Park ready to hunt for litter. We welcomed Helen to GoodGym for her first community mission as well as two others from Highbury Park Friends. After a quick chat we then started our route around the Park, moving down from the car park through the grass towards the duck pond where we saw a very excited dog repeatedly jumping into the pond!

After Abi and Rosie rescued a flip-flop from the duck pond, we split into two groups. One walking a longer route towards Highbury House where the remains of a BBQ were found, and one tackling the large grass area in the middle of the park. We then rejoined at the children's play area where we found a flask and a cushion hidden in the bushes!

We then plogged our way down to the Moseley entrance of the park and then back down to the car park where we dropped off our 5 full bags of litter! Everyone did a brilliant job and left the park squeaky clean ready for another day of use for the residents of Moseley and King's Heath.

The first mission of March saw 6 Goodgymers marching down to Birmingham Central Foodbank to weigh, sort and date donated food items.

First the weighing of donations. This is a very useful way of keeping an inventory and also a very practical way of having a mini workout which I'm sure Abi and Louise can attest to as they cracked on with the lifting and weighing! Next up was the sorting of donations into different food categories. This part of the mission always raises important philosophical questions, such as whether instant mash count as a 'hot snack' and which beans are miscellaneous?

Finally we moved onto dating the products. This is a useful way of ensuring any items which are close to their use by date do not go to waste. Once some puns were thrown around the room (Liam being a 'cereal' offender) we moved onto moving all the dated items onto the shelves ready for the next day. Tousif and Raull even optimised the storage of the tinned fish, packing them in very tightly...

Finally, we had the obligatory group photo and then said our goodbyes. Another good deed done and the first of many missions in March to put a spring in your step. Special mention to Raull for the photos! The foodbank mission runs again next week for all those interetsted!