The rain was setting well and truly in on my arrival to FGS HQ this morning. But grey skies and downpours were no match for the team, who arrived promptly at 11:30, and gathered for a briefing on today's task.

We were headed to Borough Cooperative on nearby Borough High Street.

A volunteer-operated Food Hub that works to tackle food insecurity and food waste in South London, Borough Food Cooperative has been offering subsidized groceries to the local community since October 2020.

The support and commitment they receive from volunteers enables the Food Hub to offer multiple sessions to members over the course of the week.

The route to the task...

Today's run to the task was expertly led by Matt, who decided the 1km direct route to the task was probably insufficient for our fitness needs, and so we took a 'little' detour via Tabard Gardens where we 'enjoyed' some single-leg squats and other balance moves, along with a few sprints around the football pitch, before making our way to the task.

Types of lettuce

We were greeted by Brian, who took us into the adjoining hall to sort through crates of fresh vegetables. This involved stripping dead leaves, and removing any of the more tired-looking additions from the crates.

The variety of vegetables was vast, with every lettuce from romaine to red lettuce (we're not sure of its exact name), kale, sprouts, chard, fennel and a lot of carrots.

As usual, the team whizzed through the activity, and it wasn't long before we were sweeping up discarded leaves and awaiting our next task.

Brian divided us into two teams, effectively an indoor and outdoor crew.

Tom was tasked with project-managing the garden clean-up, which saw this dedicated group blitz the front garden of weeds and debris in the short space of time we had left. Filling three large rubbish bags, it was wet and muddy work, but nonetheless one that produced some decent before and after pics.

The indoor team, meanwhile, busied themselves sorting through the last few crates of veg, and sweeping the shop floor area.

The time flew by and it was hard to believe we'd been at the Coop an hour and a quarter as we proceeded to pose for our final picture.

A task to remember

It was a magnificent effort, with not only bundles achieved in terms of produce-sorting and gardening, but the interactions we enjoyed with Coop staff and members really made it a lunch hour to remember.

We strolled back through Borough's bustling streets, with the team heading off to enjoy a well-deserved bite to eat.

A big shout-out to everyone, especially to Matt for heading up a great run; to Craig and David, whose first GoodGym this was, and who did fantastically.

And lastly, a shout-out to GoodGym Southwark's Area Activator Sam, who introduced us to the Borough Cooperative, and organised today's task.

Great work.

Until next time.