On Sunday, four GoodGymers made their way to the newly reopened Surplus To Purpose warehouse. A combination of viral social media posts highlighting what the business/charity does as well as a buy one get one free offer resulted in huge queues of customers entering the warehouse. Sadly the warehouse was closed on Saturday due a security issue so Sunday was the first day people could attend that weekend.

The GoodGymers responsibility that day was quality controlling thousands pieces of fruit and veg and keeping the shop floor well stocked. It was hard work getting around but the gang was on it. Alice and Christian returned for their second visit whilst this was Alina's first visit. Alina focused most of her time on QC-ing fruit and veg, Christian did cardboard baling, frozen food stocking, Alice mainly spent her time admiring the stacks of mushrooms - didn't really do much else (she did push the cardboard baling button, stock the drinks fridge as well as all the above). I spent my time doing some cardboard baling, QC-ing, manning the new till, and keeping the shop floor looking tidy.

The gang all had full baskets paid for by using their volunteering credits - big shout to Christian who cycled home with a 6KG box of washing powder.

Jason was the Piano Man at today's session at Bedford Fields!

We were tasked with fixing up an old piano as a planter & Jason took on the challenge like a pro. We fixed it back together with wood to make it sturdy enough to hold plants, herbs & a pear tree.

There was 8 of us today, so some of the gang dug up a large area of the garden to clear it of weeds.

It was great to welcome Lloyd & Caragh to GoodGym, we hope to see you again soon.

Thanks guys, the Piano looked great by the end :)

On Sunday, three GoodGymers made their way down to Surplus2Purpose. A very productive session for everyone with Christian putting many kilos of sugar and beans into small pots for customers. Alice seemed to run the show for us being Adam's trusted volunteer of the day, helping to arrange the shop floor, stocking and tidying the drinks fridge, as well as quality controlling hundreds of fruit and vegetables. As a now regular volunteer, I helped Adam by manning the till and helping out customers.

The GoodGymers today were the sole volunteers in the afternoon so the help was very much a help as the organisation had a record Sunday, probably spurred by the 5KG of bacon for £4.50!

We ended our day by trading in our volunteer credits for some already highly discounted goodies. On the way out, Alice spotted some Blueberry Bagels, that are part of the community bakery section which is completely free, that she managed to take home as a little treat - is it a stretch to name this report after that? Probably

This morning, I joined newcomers Alice & Emily at Ash Road Allotments to help weed for Older Wiser Local Seniors.

I brought along my two little helpers, my Italian greyhounds Elphie & Arlagh who were having a whale of a time until they both stung their paws. In true over-dramatic greyhound fashion, they of course acted like they'd severed a limb but were perfectly fine by the time we got home!! :)

We managed to get the area looking a little bit better but there's always more weeds to pull out up there!

It was lovely to meet Alice & Emily & I hope to see you again soon.