After a puzzling start trying to crack the 'child lock' on the detergent box, with an extra pair of hands we were soon working through the list of 'little' jobs.

Whilst waiting for the laundry to finish, there was time for a full walkthrough/brief for the newbie, then we were on our way.

On Sunday Kingston GoodGymers Rachel, Emily and Marie-Noëlle picked up something extra during their groceries shopping and dropped it off at their local Foodbank collection points to help those who are facing poverty, hunger and financial hardship.

And in Leicester, Ashley bought items at a local store and added to the food bank trolley 🛒

Despite the windy weather 2 Goodgymers joined the Merton Friends of the Earth team and other volunteers over at Morden Park today.

Early on Andrea joined for a brisk half hour shovelling mulch into wheelbarrows and pushing them to the saplings, earning a well derserved Sunday roast! Later on Jade stopped by to continue the mulching, along with a little weeding of thistles and ball throwing for the dog ;). Goodgym Merton have adopted one of the saplings and will be back to check out it's development over the coming months.

With temperatures dropping dramatically this week the impact of this task to get a coat to everybody in london who needs it this winter was clear. But when six GGers turned up to a huge storage space in Morden the scale of the job was enormous! 4000 coats and counting needed to be sorted, so we wasted no time in getting stuck in. We bagged up, shifted sacks, assessed donations and finally got to grips with those cable ties! We'll be back for the next session on saturday 30th to get through the next few thousand!

Volunteer numbers were down today so a quick stop to do the vacuuming which well received and it was a great excuse to get a bit of extra exercise in this chilly weather.

Merton’s Community Fridge redistributes surplus food from local businesses and food growers, ultimately stopping tonnes of good quality food from going to waste. We have regular sessions throughout the week supporting the volunteer team so sign up to help with this great initiative.

Despite the early morning temperatures dropping below freezing we soon warmed up on meeting Jon and the other volunteers (Rebecca, Ann's and Nicola) who were busy simmering up today's lunch.

After a brief introduction we got stuck into setting up the tables/chairs and laying out the cutlery/glasses and other items ready for the lunchtime arrivals. There was time to spare to help with sorting the tomatoes and grab a cuppa before heading back out into the chilly day.

The Open Table at Martin Way Methodist Church is open to all and has become an important space in the local community. The volunteer team need regular help with the set up and cleaning up before and after the lunchtime service so keep an eye out for more sessions soon.