On this chilly November evening me, John and Ivo met outside All Good Beer for a social run to Made in Hackney, a new task to help a Local Community Food Kitchen. We met up with Jo and joined gardener Lucy to clear the millions of leaves that surrounded their garden.

Before we knew it we created a massive pile of leaves ready to be collected by the council. Well done all! We then made our way inside and warmed up with some lovely herbal tea and learned more about the fantastic work being done by this community kitchen.

Well done everyone on another good task helping Springfield Park!

Me, George and Caitlin met outside Brunswick Bakehouse for a nice social run through parks and along the river Lea to the task. There we met up with the rest of the team, welcome new Goodgymer Paula !

We grabbed the tools from the depot and made our way to the work in progress Wildflower Strip next to the tennis courts in Spring Hill.

We surveyed the area and focused on patch which we were able to complete in the allocated time. We raked/ hoed the grass, whilst dodging tennis balls! We then spread sand over the area to help with reducing the grass burden, and dropping the fertility of the ground which will help to establish a healthy wildflower strip that will be more likely to survive long term. Wildflower strips are a great source of food for pollinators, and great for bigger mammals like hedgehogs who will hunt in them.

Before we knew it we created our own little Beach / Dry Garden in Hackney.

Great job everyone, see you at the next one!

Great to help out this social enterprise in Hackney Wick. We cleared the whole garden of leaves and collected them together to create a leafmould to be put back into growing herbs. Camila from Hackney Herbal was pleased and treated us to some teas made from the garden herbs. Well done everyone!

Me and Mehmet also managed to complete a 8k return run from Hackney Downs, maybe the longest Goodgym run we've done, finishing off with a swift drink at All Good Beer.

I picked up several helpings of soup, bread and an added pastry from the Soup Kitchen (ran by very helpful and friendly staff!) before giving a quick call ahead to the recipient to let them know I was coming.

It was straightforward to find the delivery address so after a 20 minute walk I delivered the food which was very gratefully received!

A really simple task that didn't take much time on my way home, but goes a long way to making the next few days more comfortable for someone.

Great to see a good turn out for this Saturday morning group run!

Welcome new Goodgymer Vicky and welcome back Beth!

Part of the group met at Brunswick Bakehouse for a social and scenic 3k run along the river. We arrived at the Leaside Trust, met the rest of the Goodgym team and got to work clearing what seemed like a never ending sea of leaves. We filled up the compost heap to the brim and also multiple big bags.

The Leaside Trust team were so pleased that they gave us a tour of their lovely venue and welcomed us back for canoe trips in the future. Will keep you posted. Then some of us ran back to Hackney Downs completing a 6k return trip. Well done everyone, smashed it 🔥

Goodgym teamed up with the residents of Nightingale Estate to help tidy up the communal garden for older and isolated residents. This is the first time Goodgym have helped out Oakfield Lodge and there was a massive pile of branches left in the garden which the residents had no luck getting rid of. The call was made to Goodgym and we swooped in to help alongside the resident volunteers.

Branches were sorted into piles depending on size and put in the brown bins or big bags ready for collection by the council. After an hour we managed to clear the whole space and it made a huge difference. Well done all!

We will be back in the future to add to this garden's transformation.