Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre serves around 80–120 families and individuals in crisis every Friday with short-term food support. It was an absolute GoodGym takeover today, with 6 GoodGymers giving it their all during a marathon 6-hour shift: three hours of prep (9–12 pm) followed by three hours of full-on distribution (12–3 pm).

Our three seasoned GoodGym vets – Brenda, Chandrima and Susan – enthusiastically led the charge, joined by three fantastic newbies: Ayan, Aysha and Rafa. A very warm welcome guys!

Together they left no stone (or spud) unturned: every single crate was meticulously quality checked before crate-mixing mountains of veg including parsnips, potatoes, broccoli, cabbages, red onions and carrots. They also put serious muscles to use lifting, unloading and sorting heavy crates full of cereal, pasta, rice, vermicelli noodles, loads of frozen meats (chicken, pork, beef), cans of fizzy drinks, mixed beans, snacks - crisps, flapjacks & buns, and bottles of various pasta sauces. Once the eye-catching fruit, veg, meat and snacks display was ready, all 6 got busy with distribution, greeting everyone with big smiles and making sure each person left with both a full bag and a full smile!

True to their hardcore engineer roots, the newbies crew even squeezed in some AI chat, sharing fun ideas about how it will change things for the better. And honestly, after today’s session, it feels like the future’s in pretty good hands.

We’re already looking forward to seeing our brilliant newbies back for many more Friday sessions!

Brenda and Susan will turn up and do good even when sessions aren't listed - true GG heroes - go guys!!

Today, the preparation for tomorrow's customer handout will be minimal.

Five GG-ers from across the boroughs banded together to set up the Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre foodbank ready for its customers. This is a fantastic project which supports 75-90 service users a week, and it was all hands on deck to get things ready this morning.

Tasks included carrying crates of food up from the store room, chopping cabbages, dividing bunches of bananas, decanting yoghurt into smaller tubs, weeding out the veg that was past its best, and creating eye-catching displays of the produce.

The prep for Friday was quite quick, mainly because the centre didn't receive many donations.