We had a great, albeit smaller, group tackling a shorter route with tonights Santa sleigh collections. Thanks to our experience last week we were entrusted with a vital responsibility: marshalling the sleigh.

Ensuring excited children and keen photographers experienced the magic safely. The team did a brilliant job guiding the crowds, keeping a watch on the sleigh, and facilitating smooth, safe interactions. Along the route others joined us to help with the collections and it was all completed very quickly.

It was a great evening supporting the Rotary team and collecting for Merton Mencap, meeting a few familiar and new faces along the way and despite a little persistent drizzle, the festive atmosphere and the sight of all the happy faces meant we enjoyed every minute.

Well done team!

We celebrated a record-breaking turnout tonight with 16 GoodGymers helping at Critical Support for our last group session of the year.

With so many hands on deck, our efficiency actually outpaced our supplies. Not to be deterred, as the paper was getting low the team pivoted to wrapping smaller gifts to maximise the output, then using decorative tape to get creative and finish the job. The final result was a fantastic pile of presents ready to go.

Great work everyone, and welcome to Safiya, Kriziya , Roisin, and Lili - Congrats on completing your first task, we hope to see you again soon.

We went full elf mode today at Deen City Farm to help bring some festive magic to Santa's Grotto!

Our four-person team divided and conquered the tasks: two of us were on crucial Nice List verification duty, checking if all the excited children had made the cut (Spoiler: they all did!). The other two volunteers were essential in the Grotto, capturing those perfect photos with Santa and ensuring every child received a gift. It was a busy day, with a long queue but luckily the weather was on our side with the sun shining.

Great job team and a big welcome to Sophia, well done on your first good deed.

The team hit two huge milestones tonight at FoodCycle Mitcham. 21 guests served, pushing the total meals for the year past 1500 and an impressive 365 days without serving soup! A double victory worth celebrating.

Guests enjoyed a hearty menu of garlic mushrooms on roast potatoes, a cosy butternut squash pasta, and a homely apple pie to finish. Comfort food at its finest!

Well done to everyone who’s helped the project reach these milestones. Whether in the kitchen, hosting, or helping behind the scenes, the whole team should feel incredibly proud. Here’s to many more delicious, soup-free evenings ahead!

Lots to cleaning and clearing today but we were set to finish ahead of schedule for a change. Until we realised the laundry had been forgotten!

This slight delay gave us the opportunity to handle the excess bread that needed disposing of along with thoroughly rinsing all the cloths.

A great end of day job as always - it's the last session next week, why not join us: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/help-with-clean-up-at-merton-s-community-fridge-wednesday-f2e883b7-dfdb-41c9-b310-c0f76aa408e7

A post party clean up which involved the big task of emptying the leftover mulled wine supplies back into their original bottles. This required steady hands, precision and zero distractions - we successfully transferred every last drop, ensuring nothing went to waste, a truly grape effort!

Aside from our decanting duties, we cleared tables, packed away equipment, swept the floor and generally restored the room to its pre-party space.