Seven of us met at the Quaker Centre for our group run to Kingsgate Student Pantry. All the students have finished for the year and were heading home so the foodbank needed to be packed up for the summer.

Sarah greeted us when we arrived and we were soon put to work. Emma, Ed and Claire wiped down the fridges in the sun room, Hazel and Ben wiped the fridges by the stairs and Dave and Luke wiped down the buckets and containers. We powered through the tasks so Sarah brought over a big box of herbs and spices and we decanted the big bags into smaller plastic packets for individual use.

Soon we were all done and it was time to run home. Great session everyone! We'll be back in October to help organise the food bank when the students are back. Hope to see you there.

I finally made it to my first blood 🩸 donation. The most complicated part was navigating my way to the donation centre. Once all checked in and questions answered the donation went by in a flash. 2 songs on the radio and 5mins later it was time for compulsory snacks 😀.

A month has flown by and it was time to give the GoodGym flowerbed its monthly check up and help out at the Canbury Community Gardens.

We had 9 enthusiastic GoodGymers this evening so we split into two groups and got cracking.

The GoodGym garden crew noticed that signs were good with some late alliums making an appearance and the salvias still providing lots of colour. Weeds had returned but were not too invasive so Claire and Sabir got tackling those and the dry leaves whilst Luke and Tom gave the laurel a hair cut and got rid of some larger weeds and brambles. A few trips to top up the woodchip and a quick drink for the hydrangea and the GG flowerbed was looking wonderful again.

Meanwhile, back at the community garden... Ben and Hazel got stuck into their first GG task by shoveling a load of mature compost into holding bins ready for when needed. Marie Noelle, Dave & Rachel spent their time trimming pathways and pruning bushes and plants that were over their best.

All in all a very productive and fun task! Welcome to GoodGym, Hazel and Benjamin. Hope to see you again :)

Rather unusually for a task we had to ‘break in’ to this one, with a saw, cutting back a thorny rose tree to gain entry to the garden we were tasked with clearing. Yes this week our group run was to St Paul’s C of E school where the long abandoned caretakers garden needed some serious attention from our group of seven GoodGymers.

We were glad to welcome new GoodGymer Zander at our meeting point at the Quaker Centre, and ran 2.5km to the task.

Once into the garden it was clear why our help was needed. The garden was littered with broken pots, dozens of growing bags full of old compost, overgrown spiky palms and a greenhouse full of dumped items.

Once again it’s amazing what a group can achieve in an hour. Luckily the school had got a skip and boy did we get to work filling it. Emily did a sterling job cutting back the worst of the spiky plants with Claire adding the cuttings to growing compost pile. Dave, Zander and Tom focussed on the top half of the garden, in particular the greenhouse which was transformed. Emma and Rachel went back and forth to the skip with the wheel barrow.

We gladly salvaged lots of items - ceramic pots, trays, a bird feeder and a lawn mower - which the school’s gardening club intend to put to good use. Hopefully now they have a clearer space they can work with.

We took a different 2.5km route back to base for a welcome stretch and cool down led by Emma who has hopefully now passed her GoodGym fitness leader training! Well done Emma and congratulations on achieving 50 good deeds as well this evening. You're an asset to GoodGym, thank you for all your support and enthusiasm.