The rain held off this morning for a sunny session of leaflet delivering. Today, we were delivering leaflets for FoodCycle Monkchester that are offering the community a free meal in Byker every week!

At the meeting point our eye was drawn by a poster outside Harbottle park advertising their volunteering sessions with a picture of Miranda, Paul and Aimee from a previous mission! See the picture above - everyone in Byker has!

Liz achieved her 46th good deed today! We will be seeing her in her black shirt very soon!

We delivered a few hundred leaflets in half an hour and called it a day. We met a few people a long the way who already knew about FoodCycle and even a lady who had delivered the same leaflets we had!

Three more good deed added to the GoodGym Newcastle total which puts us on 1903 in total. 1903 was the year Orville Wright flew an aircraft in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight. But, more importantly, we're about to hit 2000!

Big Love

The rain may have subsided but it was still a chilly night out there on Westgate road, so a huge thanks to everyone who came along tonight!

It ended up being a super productive night of leaflet delivering! I estimate that we might just have delivered over 1000 leaflets, which is an amazing effort! If you, like I, prefer to count your leaflets in inches - we started with around 8 inches of leaflets and managed to deliver a whole 4.7 inch stack of leaflets, leaving only just over three inches remaining (another day perhaps?)

Doing our best group run impression we tried our hardest to stay together up the monster that is Westgate road before coming to a stop at the Baptist Church, where the FoodCycle kitchen is. We stopped for a photo in front of the church where we had our photos taken by a generous passerby who went to extreme lengths to get the shot just right!

The task owner from FoodCycle had asked us to keep track of where we had been, so we split into team and each team received their own uniquely coloured highlighter which they used to fill in where they had been on the map. It was a busy night with many people out on the streets - we ended up giving a lot of leaflets to people asking what we were up to. I gave many leaflets to a group of boys who wanted to take home an extra leaflet for their parents so they could convince them to go to FoodCycle with them!

We made our way back to the hotel winding through the streets while delivering more leaflets. Dan was there to congratulate us at our return to the Hotel but unfortunately that wasn't enough to earn him a good deed!

Huge thanks again to everyone for coming and battling the cold and the hills just to be nice people!

It was a new community mission for us today on a very foggy Sunday morning. The weather didn’t put off six excellent GoodGymers from showing up and busting some grease!

The kitchen definitely wasn’t the worst we’ve ever seen but there was still some TLC needed. The biggest improvement we made today was the fryer – see the pics for the before and after. Louise shifted a serious amount of grease out of that fryer!

Charlotte and Liz paired up to tackle the oven while Katy and Ross tag teamed washing up and hot water distributing. I celebrated my 50th good deed today by Marie Kondo-ing the utensil drawers – everything needs a home. We wrapped up with a quick break for tea, which Liz kindly made for us, before all grabbing a mop and making the floor sparkle!

Thank you to everyone for coming, you make the world a better place! The next community mission is on Tuesday where Katy will be leading a library tidy, sign up here!

Wow, what a night. So many volunteers meant there wasn't mushroom in that kitchen. ha ha ha

We have cleaned for FoodCycle, we have delivered leaflets for FoodCycle and now we have cooked for FoodCycle.

We probably couldn't have picked a worse night to do this mission. The wind made travelling impossible, the metros were off and, against all odds, tonight was the night we were picked to have our surprise health inspection.

This inspection was thorough and long, both I and the other leader Jude we required to answer questions for nearly half an hour just before service. This meant the team of newbie goodgymers were on their own to decide upon a menu, cook a meal, and serve with very little help.

Dan can be seen modeling the menu. We made a Chinese style cabbage soup for starter, served with bread. For main we made a mushroom stir fry, which included vegetables chopped by the whole team. The stir frying was overseen by Miranda and Liz before Liz dished all the left overs into takeaway boxes for people to enjoy at home! We kept is simple with dessert and served ready made cake and custard. (and whatever Tom felt like banging in the microwave.)

Evan had to nip out to the shops to get a few pieces to help complete the meal while Tom and Sam had the arduous task of organising our long life food storage due to a request from the health inspectors. Amy spent a lot of time talking to the guests and making everyone feel at home. She is also a wizard at floor sweeping. Dan and Louise were an excellent washing and drying team - that hard work really help us tidy up and get out the door on time.

In total, we saved 67kg of food from being wasted! We served 17 guests a 3 course meal, meaning we sent out 51 meals in total. We also made many takeaway boxes. The team was excellent! I am so thankful to have this team of amazing people there to feed the people of Walker.

We got a 5/5 on the health inspection.

I love you all, A x

Cats and letterboxes were the order of the day as we started off on a 1000-leaflet-5-part-mission for our friends at FoodCycle.

FoodCycle was so impressed with the impact of our last set of leafleting missions that they called us in again, this time spreading the word to get more people into their fab communities for free meals and chats, as well as asking locals to volunteer.

We met at Monkchester Community Centre, FoodCycle's Walker base, and got cracking in two pairs, weaving between the streets and amazingly not getting lost or separated even once! There were so many cats out tonight keeping an eye on us- Michael and I counted 14 between us! So a cat related pun was absolutely necessary.

200 leaflets between four of us were done quickly and we were heading back to base after just 35 minutes!

Kudos

Join Charlotte for part two on Thursday in a new area: Felling.

Tonight, amongst the ever changing forms of rainfall, Dan, Louise and I walked the streets of Walker to deliver leaflets for FoodCycle.

FoodCycle is a wonderful charity who provide hot meals (and so much more) for anybody. FoodCycle is located at various locations across Newcastle and Gateshead.

Trying not to let the rainfall dampen our spirits (and the leaflets) we tried our best to get through our stacks.

Doing this task got me thinking about the weather and some call the midwife words of wisdom came to mind:

The seasons will always turn.

The clouds will gather and the cold will come.

We will survive them.

We will grow regardless of the weather.

We’ll know wonder, where there’s been despair.

There will be happiness, and we will remember it.

There will be friendships that we won't forget.

Love is the constant.

Whereby we endure all winters and all storms.

It is the climate in which all things can thrive (Call the midwife, 2020).

We were not unfulfilled with our task, this evening, (with not quite delivering all of the leaflets) however I think another hour will be needed to finish off the rest.

Reflecting a lot about what Goodgym really means and what it is all about.

Please come and find out what Goodgym is all about. You're always welcome to a session.

Next session is on Monday 7th August. This is a social event. All are welcome for a walk along the quayside.

Keep looking for the rainbow.