On (yet) another wintry, windswept evening, a doughty team of GoodGymers cruised by trainer or tyre to Brighton's Community Kitchen, a regular on the GoodGym roster, and a key community venue for the Brighton and Hove Community Partnership, the umbrella organisation that also oversees another GoodGym staple task venue Wilding Waterhall, among other initiatives.

The gang were welcomed as usual by Jo, the manager at Community Kitchen, with an efficient checklist of tasks including window washing, pan sloshing and oven scrubbing, ticked off with gusto by the team to the accompaniment of Jo's playlist of upbeat pop classics, including Madonna's 80s Latin-inspired reverie La Isla Bonita.

Offering an oasis of the culinary kind, the Community Kitchen serves up a menu of enticing cookery classes for all, led by local top chefs, with sessions on Goa curries, macarons, and steaks, sauces and stocks on the near horizon. It also delivers a range of community cooking workshops at low/no cost to improve well-being and confidence for people on low incomes, those living with dementia and those with physical/mental health conditions, empowering disadvantaged groups with cooking skills while providing advice on creating money-savvy nutritious meal plans.

The Community Kitchen is also available as a community venue to hire, which GoodGym Brighton made exuberant use of for its most recent Christmas bash, which featured rounds of tricky quizzing and a flotilla of pizzas. As this task fell on Shrove Tuesday, floury treats of a different kind were flipped at the follow-up social, as a contingent energised by Pippa's pancake-themed HIIT session wolfed down stacks at the nearby venue Hope and Ruin, dowsed in maple syrup and ice cream.

A great session to welcome Sam on his first go with GoodGym Brighton!

Today we combined our October parkrun meet up at the Bevendean Downs parkrun with a community mission helping The Bevy pub’s gardener Dave with some autumnal gardening.

It’s that time of the year GoodGym is often called to help planting bulbs. We helped Dave to clear the big planters to be ready for some bulb-ACTION to spread colours and a little joy next spring in the outdoor lounge of the pub.

We love parkruns! Today was a lovely day for our 5K parkrun-ing up there, with Philippa & Rosie as time keepers and 10+ participating GoodGymers. It possibly goes without saying, but parkrun really isn’t about running at all - despite it’s name - it’s really about community cohesion, wellbeing and the coming together of the community. Pretty much like Good-Gym!

This week GoodGym Brighton returned to its annual appointment with a community mission at the Brighton Youth Centre in their shiny newly refurbished venue in Edward Street.

The rings under the eyes of our host, who welcomed 13 GoodGymers at the door, showed the clear signs of tiredness on his face due to the long working days of moving from 94 Gloucester Rd. But the arrival of our GoodGym volunteer-force turned those rings in a big smile of immense gratitude! We managed to move three massive cabinets, a wardrobe, a sofa, a fridge, 10 drums, and several heavy speakers in the record time of less than 30 minutes! It was ‘super cool’.

We love to visit and help Brighton Youth Centre. This partner organisation is one of Brighton & Hove’s longest running and best-used youth services in Brighton & Hove, helping Young People to thrive all their best creativity - from skateboarding to stand-up, dancing to D n D, street art, radio, music, theatre and more. B'fest is the Brighton Youth Arts Festival run by and for young people, 13-19 years old, and this Saturday 25th will open the doors for the first time in the new venue until the 1st of November during half term, bringing together young people from across southeast to celebrate all things creative and cultural. GoodGym is inspired by you!

We left the building with good vibes and in good terms, with the agreement of a return sometime again during the winter.

Welcome new GoodGymer Katie. I trust you will be back soon GoodGym-ing together with your new active friends in Brighton Area.

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