As the students had left town for the Summer it was a good opportunity to give the Kingsgate Church food bank a Summer clean.

Claire and Farzeen started working on the fridges and freezers cleaning away the pesky crumbs and washing all the shelves and drawers.

Meanwhile upstairs the team of Luke, Tom, Jenny, Anna and Enara started to sort the canned fruit, meatballs, soup and some very strange looking drinks to identify those which had expired or were close to expiry. Anything close to expiry was put at the top of the pile and everything that had expired was separated out.

One of the freezers needed a little help defrosting for its clean so Anna joined Farzeen with some hot water to give it a helping hand whilst Tom tackled the last fridge.

Everything cleaned and sorted some brave Goodgymers decided to try the mystery drinks that would apparently provide calmness. Some slightly odd expressions followed the tasting - very sweet flavoured with a combination of berries was the verdict. Let’s hope they provided a sense of calm and serenity.

For those that didn’t fancy the mystery drinks there was an assortment of soup, tinned fruit and shepherds pies to take home that were close to expiry and prevent unnecessary food waste.

A big welcome to our newcomers Jenny and Enara!

We've normally been in action outside the front of Surbiton Library, where we've beautified the planters, removed more ivy than can be imagined and generally kept it looking nice.

The car park behind the building was the issue this time around and we were joined by Alan, a local resident who felt that the litter had begun to make it very unpleasant.

Luckily we had a top team to get down to work. Anna, Claire, Dave, Emily, Laurel, Luke, Marcos, Rachel, Sabir and Tom grabbed litter pickers, hoes, brushes and black bags and got going.

We removed a huge amount of green waste, cans, plastic and even socks. Alan was very grateful for our efforts and it looked way better after just an hour. Emily even had time to make it to the pub to see the England Lionesses fight their way out of trouble yet again.

A nice hour outside making a difference.

Tonight, GoodGym Kingston had a fantastic group run and session at the Full Cycle Bicycle Project! With a great turnout, we were kept busy with a whole host of new jobs and a few we are always happy to help out with:

Our tasks included:

Sorting out the loading bay and re-organising bike parts 🛠️

Reordering the upcoming servicing schedule 📅

Giving bikes a good clean ✨

Pumping up countless tyres 💨

And a general tidy-up to leave the place gleaming! 🧹

As we efficiently tackled each job, more things to do were found. We always love to support this amazing project and look forward to being back to tackle some more tasks soon.

A huge welcome to both Shammy and Amy! We hope you enjoyed your first session and will be joining us again soon for more good deeds and great company!

Ready for the bi-annual bunting challenge tonight the team headed along to Jubilee Square. The age-old question of "how many GoodGymers does it take to put up bunting?" was certainly answered as we completed the job with almost half an hour to spare, then endeavoured to add a little more... bunting!

Getting the many hands organised with ladders, rolls of bunting and a trusty staple gun was an interesting test of coordination and precision. And of course, no GoodGym session is complete without an impromptu good deed - we squeezed in a quick litter pick to make sure the area is at it's best ahead of Saturday's Good Food, Green Fair and some over-timers stayed behind to help finish chalking out the stall locations, ensuring plenty of space for the main stage.

What a lovely evening and welcome to Shekinah and congratulation on your first task - we hope to have you back soon.