Another busy Thursday set up for Hammersmith Food Bank. Mark and Ariane finished setting up tables and crates. Once the delivery van arrived, Mark made quick work of bringing in the new boxes of food, while Ariane chopped and bagged up loaves of bread. Having had a couple of weeks practice, everything was ready to go within half an hour, leaving time for a coffee and a natter with the food bank volunteers!

On a gloriously sunny Wednesday, a team of GoodGymmers gathered at the ever-inspiring Tiny Forest for an afternoon of green-fingered TLC.

The task? Wrestle with some seriously overgrown creeper weeds that had taken over parts of the site—and these were not your average garden variety. These giants were determined to stay rooted, but luckily, so were we.

After a solid weeding session, we turned our attention to the litter that had snuck its way into the undergrowth. In true GoodGym style, bags were filled, odd items unearthed (a half-buried shoe may have made an appearance), and by the end, the Tiny Forest looked loved once again.

With the hard graft done, we didn’t stop there. Taking full advantage of the sturdy benches and that blazing sunshine, we rounded off with a bonus fitness session—think tricep dips, step-ups, and a good stretch, all with smiles and a side of sweat.

Huge thanks to everyone who came along and gave their time and energy. The forest (and the local wildlife!) are grateful—and so are we. 🌳☀️💪

St Simon's Church in Shepherds Bush was the scene for a new regular Monday GoodGym mission, supporting Hammersmith & Fulham Foodbank.

Honor and Alan were met by the super-friendly volunteer team who guided us through a series of tasks ranging from setting up tables, moving and unpacking delivery crates and creating a seating area with tables and chairs. There were plenty of toiletries and food to be sorted, including lots of tinned vegetables, pulses and classic favourite meals.

A very satisfying "power hour" indeed left the grateful regular volunteer team ready to admit the equally grateful foodbank recipients.

We had an energetic session setting up furniture in the hall for clients, and the storage room. We unpacked the food delivery van and set up stations for volunteers to fill bags for client's requests. Finally we sliced up a big box of bread donated by Gail's ready for distribution.

Sevan and Kash walked from Acton Central (after junior parkrun and coffee with other GoodGymers) to East Acton for a return visit to Mr S, whose garden was under attack by a joint forces of brambles and bindweed. The vines posed a serious trip hazard to the older gentleman, who had recently suffered a fall and an injury to his head. He felt better when two Ealing GoodGymers visited, but was still unstable on his feet, and couldn't tend to his garden in full capacity.

Sevan pulled the pesky bindweed and cut the brambles while Kash strimmed the wet grass and baby blackberries, then raked them together with last year's fallen leaves. The duo spotted a rogue sycamore tree (which they had probably come across during their previous visit a long time ago). Sevan cut it back as much as possible with a pair of secateurs.

The mission finished with filling the tenth black bag with garden waste and moving the sacks to the front of the house. Mr S, who had initially thought that GoodGymers were coming today "just to look at the garden", was delighted to see how much was achieved in 90 minutes.

AJ and Emily arrived at the church and met the food bank volunteers who explained the jobs that needed doing and a bit about the service that is provided. Emily initially got stuck into carrying through the chairs from the church room to the reception area where people would be coming in to have a cup of tea and wait for their selection of food that would be brought to them. We set up lots of small tables with little table clothes and two or three chairs set around them in a cafe style so it would be welcoming and relaxing for people to spend some time there. Then the main job was setting up the back room where the donated food was being delivered to and unpacked. First we had to bring big tables through and set these up, and then we could arrange the food on them. The system was that there would be pickers with a list so that they could come and put together a bag of food and bring it out to the people it is for. AJ has helped in many food banks in the past so had a brilliant suggestion of turning the tins on their side with the labels up so that the pickers can easily see what they are grabbing, plus you could fit more in the crate that way. Another job was cutting some of the bigger loaves of bread that had been donated by Gail's into halves so that they could be distributed to more people. We donned our blue gloves and got to work - Emily cutting and AJ bagging them up individually. After this room was all set up and the empty crates stacked up ready to be taken away, we had finished the task. All the food bank volunteers made us feel very welcome and we left them well prepared.