Last Thursday before Christmas and 5 Ealing Goodgymers were not driving home for Xmas after work but to St John's Church as their presents 🎁 was requested at Ealing Soup Kitchen. All Angela from ESK wanted for Christmas was GoodGym Ealing to help decorate with other volunteers the foyer and other areas including the serving area for the Friday Hub Christmas party. We discovered tonight that these 5 Goodgymers are (he)artists ❤️. Tonight Sevan was a (w)rapper, Kash artist 🎨 ,Madhan a gangsta sprout chef 👨‍🍳 with his special case, Su a tree-mendous decorator, Steph Ducat DJ and lighting up for Christmas. We were chillin with our snowmies. This was a fairy tale of Ealing as the foyer was revamped and ready for the Christmas party. Its a wrap! Everyone will know its Xmas when walking through the main doors tomorrow morning.

This Friday morning Su and Kash decided to use their time off to help out Ealing 135 Group, a friendly local network run by and for parents and carers in the Borough of Ealing. The Ealing 135 Group volunteers run a weekly playgroup in Ealing for mums with under 5's.

Su and Kash arrived at 9:15 am at St Paul's Community Playschool to put out the toys and mats from the toy cupboard. Everything they pulled out from the closed was so colourful 🌈 that it transformed a featureless hall into a children's paradise! 🦄

As they prepared the place for the arrival of mums with their little ones, a kitchen window opened, and a new option was added to the potential tasks list: serving hot drinks and biscuits! ☕🍪 Two GoodGymers proceeded to the door with the ominous "No children" sign and were instructed what to do. For an hour, Su and Kash offered the guests tea and coffee and topped up the plates with rich tea biscuits, digestives, bourbon biscuits and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. It takes a certain kind of person to be a great host at such events, and Su was a natural!

All the babies and toddlers in the group were very well-behaved - there were no sounds of drama, and the kids didn't try too hard to reach for the biscuits while their mums turned their heads away.

The GoodGym kitchen team washed up the mugs and teaspoons regularly, so the utensils only needed to be dried at the end. Su and Kash helped pack away the toys and were ready to go. The hall was turned back into a bland room hiding its rainbowy secrets in the cupboard until the next Friday morning! 🤫

What is the sweetest thing that happened to GoodGym Ealing this year? A biscuit challenge brought to us by Ealing Foodbank. Was it the biscuits or the prospect of an indoor task, or the promise of pizza afterwards - we don't know. What we know is that the turnout was pretty good - 17 GoodGym souls.

Harvey directed new arrivals to park their fit bodies inside the St Mellitus Hall, where GoodGym Ealing's Minister of Foodbank Affairs, Shan, with Hilary from Ealing Foodbank, gave us a briefing.

The task was to sort the donations from the "biscuit" 🍪 category by their expiry date. We have never seen so many chocolate blocks, candies and cookies. GoodGym Ealing may say no to cookies in their browsers but not to the real thing. The trick was to sort them, not to snack on them!

Before the biscuit temptation started, Chris, Mike and Milly signed up for an alternative challenge - tidying up the St Mellitus' Church. The task required more literacy skills than the foodbank job - the chosen ones had to sort out the hymns, not just expiry dates!

Claire and Cam prepared the new boxes and labelled them, then supervised sorting by the new recruits: Su, Madhan and Iva. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing, Iva! Well done on your first community mission 🙌

Bryon and Jenni, experts in any GoodGym activity, were switching between tasks that needed the most attention the given moment. Tuesday regular, Annabel, was doing the same.

Kat & Kash were like DJs behind the turntable, mixing the biscuits from old albums into something totally new:

• Jan 2023

• Feb-March 2023

• Apr-May-Jun 2023

• Jul 2023 and forward

The biggest hit this winter was Apr-May-Jun 2023.

Liv multitasked between sorting the biscuits and taking photos for the report.

Just before and of the task end Chi Nwa showed up to say hi and help with sorting the last box of biscuits, then had to shoot off to his other workout.

Counterintuitive, after re-shuffling dozens of biscuit tubs, we haven't rewarded ourselves by gorging on sweets but headed to the pub for a savoury option 🍕

If you feel inspired to help Ealing Foodbank, why not bring your food donations to Gunnersbury parkrun on Saturday morning - sign up here.