On a sunny Saturday morning, the team quickly powered through the parcel packing, putting together more than 40 food parcels for families in Redbridge. It was great to see Ben there with us for the first time. As we finished packing an hour early, there was time for a surprise 16th birthday celebration for Millie, one of the longest standing volunteers at the foodbank. Snacks and a bit of a sugar rush gave us some energy for running/cycling home and enjoying the rest of our days. Great work from everyone involved 👏

This was an epic day of GoodGym goodness and Yasmine, Simon and Julia put in some real hard work to keep a community garden going!

As it was only two of us (Yasmine and Julia) until later in the day, we arealised we had a lot to do! But we started the morning easy to keep fun vibes going - we met at the station at 10am just in time for the plants and compost delivery from the Forest Farm shop, who kindly delivered all the goodies for the start of our session. We then made a cuppa and eased into the day:)

Llitter, litter everywhere! The first task was to collect the litter in the area around the entrance, we picked up the litter all around the corner where an old tree stump stands and also all around the hedge where we created a new flower bed a few month ago. We also collected all the cigarette butts from the planters, to be fair the planters were quite clean as the station cleaning staff continue helping with the clearing!

Creating a new flower patch: Our next task was to take the compost that has been standing in the green waste bag in the station area (remnants of previous planter replacement from a few years ago) and create a new flower bed by spreading the compost around a tree and putting in some of the wildflowers. We hope it won't be sprayed by the council or peed on by some dogs and men that seem to use that corner for peeing!

Hard work and some 'Psycho' stabbing: Once we warmed up we went for the first planter to remove what is now just a heavy lump of roots, weeds and ivy. Because it's been raining heavily in the days beforehand we had to cut through half of the planter roots and that's when anger-releasing trowel stabbing action came in! It was hard work but very satisfying to do that:) We managed to clear two planters and put the old stuff into a now freed green-waste bag that was filled to the full. But it's looking lovely with the ivy in there now:)

Lunch in the station office: having worked up the sweat by working for a few hours, we decided to take a lunch break, which was provided - Julia brought it some yummy Hot Pot noodles from Itsu and lots of snacks! Lovely station fellas invited us to sit down in their kitchen that is just behind the control centre so we were able to make use of the kettle and have a relaxing lunch. And yes of course we also had tea and some choccies before the next task:)

Water, water everywhere: Despite the torrential rain earlier in the day, the planters under the bridge were very thirsty and needed a good watering and filling of the containers. This is where Yasmine came in! She attended to this bicep-busting task of filling in all the planters with water and carrying watering cans - we now have a new 'water filler' that knows her way around men's toilet at the Hainault station hehehe - welcome Yas;)

Freshening up planters and topping up with nutritious compost: At this point, we had extra reinforcement arrive in the shape of Simon, council's Civil Pride enforcement officer who got stuck in straight away to help out this community project! Simon filled a huge bucket with the new compost and attended to all 15ish planters by putting fresh layer at the top so that the planters got new food. Simon also planted in more plants as he went along. Yasmine and Julia continued to carry watering cans:)

Fresh and beautiful planters: Before lunch we prepared the empty planters by putting in new liners, mixing water-retailing gel with compost and watering it thoroughly to soak up the gel. The planters were ready for planting so Julia put in a selection of lovely evergreen and herbacious perennials and annual flowers. Simon and Yasmine finished their previous tasks and joined Julia in the planting up of two new mini-gardens. Julia also added more compost and planted flowers for the wildflower patch around the corner.

More Tea and choccies: Before one last push and almost 4 hours we took a quick break with more tea and sweet treats to hide from the rain, which didn't stop. It was always lovely to have a chat and hear what's happening in the area - Simon talked to us about lots of lovely events he is doing with the schools and community and he offered to take some of the goodgym leaflets to distribute. We also shared all the plastic pots we had for Simon to take to school events for kids to plant seeds into them and grow more flowers!

One more planter and flowers! At this point the rain properly arrived but it didn't stop this hardy bunch! There were still plenty of plants and flowers and compost left and with Simon's help the three of us cleared and replaced the 3rd planter in no time! We put the old weedy and Ivy floweing compost by the hedge corner where things tend to get full of litter, we hope this 'ivy cascade' will deter the litter louts and keep that corner nice and green. We then put the compost and new plants in collectively. It was such a satisfying task and we kept getting lovely comments from passers-by thanking us for making the local area so much nicer and more green. That was lovely!

Cleaning in Progress - sweeping, mopping, tidying: Once the refresh and replant of community planters finished, we wanted to make sure we left the area as we found it! Yasmine took care of mopping and cleaning the area in the toilets and station where we spilled compost. Simon and Julia swept the area outside the entrance that got quite messy from planting. We also collected the rest of rubbish, put it in bags and got a thank you from the station cleaning staff! We are so grateful for this fantastic collaboration between the TFL Hainault station and Goodgym to keep this initiative going!

This was such a rewarding and satisfying session that even though the rain was really heavy by the end, we left in good spirits and no one chose a train or bus and instead walked and cycled back! THANK YOU SIMON AND YASMINE!

Wow! What an amazing turn out of GG members we had at Frenford Foodbank today. We had 9 signed up initially, some late sign ups and some too late to sign ups (who turned up anyway 😊) and a couple who also brought friends along. I did my best to ensure everyone was included in the photos, sincere apologies if anyone still got lost in the crowd.

A big welcome to newcomer Jay who not only turned up for his first Good Gym session and got stuck straight in he brought a friend who also got stuck in and is now planning to join GG. Talking of which Pauline also brought a very helpful friend who is now thinking of joining up.

Its always a little busy at these sessions but with a additional massive donation arriving this week and so many people me "organised chaos" is the expression that comes to mind. As usual everyone got on with the job of preparing food packages, dealing with the lack of space with grace, courtesy and agility.

Between helping the drivers out with deliveries, we set about organising the huge delivery and pretty soon there were big spaces and empty crates where walls of goods had been, and a full storage shed and replenished shelves appeared ready for the next one.

It has been suggested that if they get another big donation of goods like that again that it would be a good idea for an additional session before we prepare the orders.

Good Job Good Gym and Friends 😁