Last night we channelled our original GoodGym roots by combining a group run and a good deed – something that we don’t always get to do in Nottingham.

Bozena, Peter, Rosemarie and Rachel met at the Bridgeway Hall Methodist Centre to head out on a jog around the local area. It was one of those evenings when half of us were running late due to traffic and general life/work chaos, so we set off a little later than planned, but we still managed a gentle 1.15 miler led by Peter.

On return to the Bridgeway Hall, we met with Leah and first time GoodGymer Faizah and the six of us enjoyed a few stretches while we waited to start the task. At 7pm we were joined by Tom and we all headed in to meet Mark from the Meadows Foodbank who, as always, greeted us with open arms and a list of tasks that he had lined up for us.

We spent the next hour hard at work around the foodbank. Peter and Tom took on the task of sweeping and mopping all the floors in the main store area and kitchen. Rosemarie and Faizah tackled a huge pile of carrier bags, dividing them into piles based on their durability (‘bag for life’, ‘bag for a few years but not life’ (?), ‘slightly less sturdy bag’, ‘paper bag’ etc etc…).

Aided by Mark’s son, Leah squashed down a pile of cardboard to leave outside for recycling. They then moved onto packing six 2-person boxes and two children’s boxes with food and supplies. Rachel cleaned the fridges and freezers and gave the pantry area a sweep and mop.

Meanwhile, Bozena had the unique task of sorting through a pile of donated books to see which were to go on the shelf in the foodbank and which would be better donated to charity. She had a great time checking out a range of ‘classics’, including a magic book where the contents disappeared and reappeared again before our eyes!

Of course we had a group photo before we left and it was great to see so many GoodGym t-shirts on show (not always possible at this time of year when we’re all covered up). Don’t we look lovely!

Well done to Faizah for completing her first GoodGym task. It was lovely to meet you!

Thanks to Mark for hosting us once again at the Meadows Foodbank. We will make a date to come back very soon.

This Wednesday’s task was in honour of This Girl Can's "Let's Lift the Curfew" campaign, highlighting the inequality that women face as the long nights set in when it comes to exercising and travelling in public places.

Quite aptly, 3 GoodGym Nottingham gals - Hannah, Sarah and Rachel - attended this task, litter picking around Forest Rec.

This was our first dark task after the clocks changed, so we donned our head torches and hi-vis vests so that we could spot the litter and keep an eye on each other as we made our way around the park.

We decided to concentrate on the side of Forest Rec where the litter tends to congregate near the wall. As well as the usual bottles, cans, sweet wrappers and tissues, we bagged ourselves a wheel from a child’s police bike and a little shining star! At one point we thought we had lost Hannah, but turns out she was in a bush unearthing a massive haul of old batteries that had probably been there for quite some time – ‘girl power’!

For more information on how GoodGym are supporting the This Girl Can #LetsLiftTheCurfew campaign, read the story here.

Well done to Sehrish who went along to the Windmill Community Gardens to help clear up after their annual Pumpkin Day event. Tracey and the team at the WCG were extremely grateful for your help!

Well done to Stephanie who did her first GoodGym task helping set up the Pumpkin Day at the Windmill Community Gardens. Tracey and the team were very grateful for all your help (and the extra pairs of hands you took along too!).

Finishing off our task from earlier this week, I headed out around Hyson Green delivering leaflets for Pumpkin Day!

Just gutted I can’t actually go!

We may not be able to sing like Adele, but by golly can GoodGym Nottingham paint a wall!

After a last-minute task rejig, we were back with our new friends at The Place to get them another step closer to finishing their fantastic renovations.

Rosemarie and Vytautas were giving a coat of paint to some of the trunking around the two rooms, while Peter, Nigel and Leah were cutting in and rollering another coat of white paint onto the walls.

Having blitzed that pretty quickly (many hands make light work and all that), including a coat over the area we were chipping the old paint off last week, we moved on to coating the door frames with some fresh wood paint.

As always, our fabulous hosts made us a well-earned round of tea towards the end as we took a step back to admire everything. The Place is almost unrecognisable from our first visit - the team has done an amazing job and we can't wait to see the finished rooms soon! I've been assured we'll get invited to the launch party, so watch this space!