Tonight, 9 of Luton Goodgyms finest came together to support Penrose roots to recovery. The team made there own way to the task, some running from town, and others making their own way. Tigger even parked up early then went for a cheeky 10k run 🏃‍♀️ beforehand.
We were welcomed by Lynne at Penrose with all the tools to get stuck in to turning over a vast bed, preparing it for planting potatoes 🥔. There were quite a few weeds to clear and the team cleared quite a few wheel barrow full. We didn't get to dig the trenches but we'll no doubt be back to support again soon. Great job team. You're all awesome.

Despite the miserable weather, Martin , Mayra , and Gill turned up at High Town Baptist Church ready to get stuck into food preparation for tonight's FoodCycle meal. They had been hoping for a bumper delivery of food, but today there was no food surplus from Sainsbury's and only a few boxes of veg from Aldi. Gill's quick thinking meant that she had bought over 100 Quorn sausages, to go with some chips and wedges we had stored in the freezer a few weeks ago. Mayra got busy turning some tins of kidney beans and chopped tomatoes into home made baked beans and the main course was on it's way to being sorted. In the meantime Martin got busy with the help of another FoodCycler in preparing a delicious and hearty leek, potato and parsnip soup and while Gill was detailed with pudding (a vegan upside down banana sponge with syrupy orange segments and of course some custard.

While the cooking crew were kept busy Fredy arrived for his first time at FoodCycle and was soon put to work getting out the tables and chairs, and getting the hall ready for our guests. He was then a wizz at getting drinks made and then serving up the dinner alongside the others on the hosting team.

Once again GoodGym made a huge impact on the successful running of the session and there were lots of empty plates and satisfied guests who paid tribute to their efforts.

Well done Team - it was a great effort and a fabulous meal.

On Saturday the GoodGymers were out in force helping set up decorations and serve food and drinks for those attending a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. It was a great day organised for the local elderly community and there was a fantastic turnout of over 100 people! Everyone was in great spirits as they were treated to some traditional Irish dancing, songs from a local Irish folk band, a prize raffle and a round of bingo!! The GoodGym team also got to sample some of the lovely lunch for their hard work, which was a lovely lamb stew. The organisers were so thankful for our help and hard work on the day, and some of the attendees also expressed their gratitude and thanks. Can we do the same for St. George’s Day please?

This week was a slightly different group run, no brambles in the dark for us!

We had a task super close to our start point so we took a stroll round the corner to the Gurdwara where a big cleaning job waited for us.

The Gurdwara feeds loads of people every week with their community kitchen and with several Sikh festivals coming up things will be extra busy so it was time for a deep clean 🫧

The kitchen was still in use as we arrived, and we were asked to take a seat and enjoy some pakoras and samosas with tea before we started, yum 😋

Bellies filled with delicious freshly cooked food we were eager to get to work and there was plenty to do.

Cupboards were emptied, cleaned inside and out, all the contents sorted for use-by dates and then replaced in the cupboards.

A couple of book shelves were unloaded and removed to make way for fancy new ones. Sounds simple but the 8 screws that needed unscrewing were the toughest screws you've ever met, really worked up a sweat on those!

Finally before we set off into the night we were issued with takeaway bags with more pakoras. We have certainly been spoiled on this task!

Normal service will resume next week!

Wow! What an amazing event we attended today.

We'd had short notice about a lunch being served for about 120 older members of the community and the organisers were hoping that GoodGym could provide some additional volunteers to help with the set up, serve drinks and meals, and tidy up afterwards.

I was leading from Task Force but unfortunately couldn't get out of work for the start of the task. But Kamal kindly agreed to liaise with Vera (the organiser) and the other GoodGymers, so that they were all able to make their way to Futures House in time to start setting up the hall. I was really greatful that he was happy to deputise for me in my absence.

By the time I arrived the GoodGym Team had got the room set up beautifully with festive table settings, crackers and all. We even had a guest appearance by Bakari, who has helped out on a couple of GoodGym tasks in the summer but who we have yet to persuade to sign up and become an official GoodGym member. And it was nice to see Fredy and Abdulkarim too who I haven't seen for a while. Of course Musa and Mohammad were there too and working hard as usual. I was impressed to see the team serving drinks and dishing up soup to the assembled crowd. Although I think some of the GoodGymers were a little surprised to see that, although senior citizens, some of the guests were pretty partial to a glass or two of various beverages, and white wine spritzers seemed to be going down a storm. I was also amused to see the number of people who were very excited to be offered a snowball. I seemed to be given mixology duties and was soon mixing up the Advocaat and lemonade concoction, as well as G&Ts, whisky macs and the odd vodka orange and soda. And of course there was a vast array of soft drinks too.

Once the soup dishes were cleared we were then kept busy serving up the main courses and dishes of vegetables to the folk. It was good to be able to chat with the guests while we were serving, but chat was kept to a minimum in order for us to get people's food to them still piping hot.

And before we knew it it was time to start clearing tables and get the puddings out to people - stopping only to take a few group photos with Vera and one or two of the other volunteers from Future's House. The guys then tucked into a well deserved meal themselves, before doing the final table clearance and later clearing up the room.

Yasin kindly helped to box up some of the leftover vegetables which GIll would be taking with her to the FoodCycle final meal of the year later that afternoon so that it would not go to waste. Special congratulations to Yasin too for qualifying for his Black Tee-shirt today. 50 tasks - go you Yasin!!!