The Friday Hub did not have the GOATS Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and yes it was on the menu, but the real GOATS today were the Goodgymers as they dug deep as super busy day, regular volunteers missing and less volunteers in some areas. Lunch service was the 2nd shift for the 3 GOATS. Iram went from the parcel section to serving food and going through the kitchen to help clean. Thaiza went from serving Tea and Coffee, followed by helping in the clothing section and then then being in a busy kitchen. Steph Ducat was in the kitchen since 10am cooking/preparing food to then plating food with some washing up too. Todays Menu was Carribean style :

• Vegetable soup(carribean version)
• Curry Goat with rice and peas or plain rice
• Vegetarian curried chick peas with rice
• Baked Chicken
• Fried Dumplings
• Main dishes had a side salad and a portion of coleslaw
• Apple struddle with ice cream

The food went down like a treat and not much left for take way. The team are definately are the GOATS today as we nearly served 190 persons.

Ealing Soup Kitchen is a brilliant charity that looks after vulnerable and homeless people in Ealing. Every Friday, they run a drop-in service at St John’s where guests can enjoy hot meals, free clothes, showers, barbers, games, workshops, and advice.

This week, Thaiza, Steph Ducat, and Iram divided and conquered the tea shift. Thaiza manned the tea and coffee station, keeping cups filled and spirits high, while bravely navigating a plate of mystery biscuits... what looked like chocolate chips turned out to be fruit and milk chocolate in disguise!

Meanwhile, Steph Ducat earned the title of Coleslaw King, helping prepare a delicious dinner of curried goat, baked chicken, and chickpea curry with rice and peas. When the food delivery finally arrived (two hours late!) it was all hands on deck. Iram and the team worked at full speed to portion and pack meals, marking each crate with food items to keep track. There was so much food that the bags were bursting by the end of the shift!

As Storm Amy approached Ealing, a whirlwind of West London GoodGymers landed at Horsenden Farm. A strong team of seventeen hasn't been seen in Ealing for a long time. It took the joint forces of Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond to build a do-good brigade so large that it surprised even the task owner, Elsa, who scrambled to find more tasks for them.

We welcomed two new joiners, Bernadette and Tom, who chose to kick off their GoodGym adventure dangerously close to the Gruffalo Trail at Horsenden Hill. With such an impressive team, the chances of being eaten by a Gruffalo were close to zero. At the same time, the odds of having fun with good company while getting active in nature before eating carb-heavy, cheesy goodness from a local bakery were very high!

Our regulars from the Hounslow group runs had a chance to welcome back the unstoppable Lucy after the break she had to take in the last couple of weeks. Great to see you again, Lucy!

Two of the tasks given by Elsa had a lot to do with the mysterious disappearance of Horsenden pigs. The first assignment, taken by Steph Ducat, Iram, Kymm and Gus, was to transfer hay from the broken-down hay bales to the former pig quarters and spread it on the ground. I chose to believe it was to secure the traces of a pignapping crime until the arrival of the forensics team. Steph described the effort as hay-way to hell as the gusts of wind kept blowing the hay out of the wheelbarrows. Kymm reported there were as many techniques to spread the hay as GoodGymers: from gleeful tossing, through grumpy kicking to methodical arranging.

Sevan and Bernadette had a task of clearing weeds, mostly nettles, near the Horsenden Loaf pizza oven. Sevan shared that they were setting the stage for the hog roast the following day. That shed some light on the disappearance of the pigs - they must have escaped when they heard about the whole hog roast enterprise!

The largest squad undertook a mammoth job of clearing brambles to expand a meadow where the farm cows could graze to help establish a grassland with plenty of wildlife on the slope of Horsenden Hill. Gaby, Ariane, Tom, Mairaj, Maxime, Afshin, Thaiza, Lucy and Kash were chopping, lopping or slashing the blackberry invaders while Anita and Ash raked away the cuttings.

The cherry on a cake was that all the activity was observed through the lens of photographer Laura, who did a great job of not interrupting our tasks while capturing the spirit of GoodGym and the beauty of Horsenden Hill. We are hoping our part-time modelling gig today will help spread the word about GoodGym in the coming months. It will probably also disclose our soft spot for Horsenden pizza!

Inspired by today's task? Join the Horsenden session next month! Sign up now!