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.

A new challenge this Tuesday at The Malden Centre near Jubilee Square as we helped Emma to help set up a food hub for Kingston Voluntary Action.

It's going to be a fantastic venue and the kitchen rooms just needed a good clean, which Anna, Emily, Levita and Rachel got going with.

Meanwhile Dave, Marcos and Tom got sweeping, removing lots of leaves and litter outside their enormous refrigerated shipping container, which is for storing the food and was perfect for one of our weirdest team photos ever.

A nice fun task, even including free biscuits!

Tonight we had three missions in one! How did we do it? Four of our volunteers went to Refugee Action Kingston to sort the kid's clothes, another went to another RAK office to hang a blind and the rest of us went to Elm Road... phew! Here's the run report about our amazing volunteers...

Nettled but Not Defeated at Elm Road!

In sweltering heat, the GoodGym crew took on the nettle jungle at Elm Road playground, working with the local community group to help reclaim the space for local kids. Armed with spades, forks, and a few poorly chosen gloves (ouch!), we tackled the stubborn roots - some so long they felt like they were heading for Narnia.

Marcos and Tom kept spirits high with sports facts while litter picking, and Rachel captured the action on camera. Newbie John gave it his all but ran out of water - thankfully, local residents came to the rescue with bottles of the good stuff!

Despite roots hiding under the fence, we cleared a massive stretch and even uncovered some old mosaic tiles. One hot, sweaty hour later, the bed was clear and the team absolutely smashed it. Great work all round!

Such a sort out at Refugee Action Kingston

Claire, Anna, Laurel and Sabir ran and walked their way to Refugee Action tonight.

We were greeted by air conditioning which was a welcome relief plus lots of children’s clothes that required sorting. Having made signs for different age categories we sorted the clothes by size for boys and girls and boxed them up so that they could be easily selected by the customers. The area is now much more organised and I’m sure we will be back to tackle the coats another day.

Driller thriller

Dave went to a RAK office to help fix a blind. In his own words has a hot sweaty mess but at least the charity workers won't be now.

GoodGym Kingston - you are simply tri-mendous!

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!