It initially looked like the wet weather had put off diners from attending FoodCycle, but slowly the room filled up and eventually 25 individuals were sitting down for dinner. In the kitchen it was organised chaos, peeling, chopping, mixing, boiling, piping and even a bit of whipping (of the egg whites, obviously) going on. Whilst we waited for the fruits of the labours in the kitchen to be delivered, out front we were serving drinks, distributing fresh produce and making the diners feel as comfortable and welcome as possible. Two hours later and it was all over, a delicious three course dinner enjoyed by all (including the volunteers), cleared up, washed up, and put away. So everyone left feeling fully satisfied.

What a perfect morning to celebrate a milestone! We marked one year since launching GoodGym Merton by supporting our friends at Morden Parkrun.

The beautiful, crisp morning was ideal for getting out and doing good. Our team embraced various roles, from marshalling the course and handing out finish tokens to expertly managing the funnel. We had an absolute blast cheering on every single walker and runner including several members of the GoodGym team who took on the course themselves!

It was a brilliant, energetic way to celebrate a year of incredible community achievements. Cheers to many more years of getting fit and doing good in Merton!

Well done team and congratulations to Alex and Siobhan on their first Parkrun experience and welcome Siobhan (officially) to the team.

Today two of the Taskforce team attended the Kingston & Merton EXPO25. It was a brilliant chance to get face-to-face with numerous businesses, organisations, and individuals to chat all things GoodGym in both Kingston and Merton. The energy was great, and we had so many positive conversations about how we Do Good and Get Fit.

It was great to see some familiar faces, but even better to meet a few people who had heard about us and some who had experienced the team helping with local jobs. Sharing first-hand stories about the difference our runners and volunteers have made reinforced the positive impact we have on the community. We are looking forward to doing more as there were lots of opportunities for follow up

Tonight we headed to Raynes Park Station to assist FORPS with a monumental task: shifting two bags of topsoil for their planters, along with some essential pruning.

We knew the topsoil challenge was steep - on previous visits it took ten people who could access the platform to shift one bag, in 30 mins! Tonight, with half the hands on the platform and the rest of the team helping outside, we had our work cut out!

Challenge accepted. Everyone flew into action, carrying bucket after heavy bucket, while keeping to safety protocols (no running etc), and avoiding disruption to passengers disembarking. Despite a huge effort and an extra ten minutes, we had to concede defeat with a small amount of soil remaining.

A massive welcome to Alia who completed her first mission, we hope to see you again soon.

After helping pack up we headed to the pub to drown our sorrows knowing we gave that topsoil our best shot.

Great work, team! We may have been defeated by the soil, but we definitely won the battle for community spirit, marking our one-year anniversary with cake and celebrations.