I went along to Wimbledon Foodbank for today’s session and helped to process vouchers, hand out parcels and pet food, and offer clients a warming cup of tea or coffee. On such a chilly day, that was certainly appreciated.

3 GoodGymmers descended upon Canons House Community Garden today, to get their hands dirty helping to prepare the beds for planting. Armed with trowels, forks, and a healthy dose of enthusiasm, we tackled the overgrown beds with gusto. From pesky dandelions to tenacious thistles, no unwanted weed was safe - we cleared, pulled and piled - leaving neat, tidy beds, ready to receive their new inhabitants. There was a lot of Goodgym chat going on as we worked with Paul sharing stories from his extensive experience with the existing teams at Wandsworth and Hounslow with the less experienced members of the reasonably new Merton team - we hope to have created some interest from the other volunteers to join us at a session sometime too.

A huge thank you to Sustainable Merton for having us, it was a pleasure to contribute to such a worthwhile project, and we can't wait to see the garden flourish in the coming months. We're already seed-ing forward to our next visit! Join us if you can: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/help-with-planting

Goodgym Merton and Kingston teamed up and donned their red t.shirts in support of Dons Local Action Group (DLAG); quadrupling efforts braving the Wimbledon chill today. A perfect double date for Valentine's, spreading the GoodGym love (and leaflets!) outside Morrisons. We were keen to share the love beyond just chocolates and flowers, highlighting our community effort and volunteering opportunities with all that would listen. Our mission: to recruit new members to GoodGym Merton. As we chatted to shoppers, explaining our work and the benefits of joining the team we tried not to get caught up in the buzz of Downton Abbey free film tickets!

It was heartening to discover a few people had already heard of GoodGym. One individual who was already a member didn't know of the recently launched Merton area, so it shows the importance of getting out into the community and spreading the word!

We hope this is just the start of a great collaboration with DLAG and we will continue to share the love and make a difference in our community together. A big shout-out to Petra and Mike who were instrumental in making this possible. Happy Valentine's ❤️.