Welcome to GoodGym's Jacob for your first session in Manchester!

This evening we met up outside Whitworth Art Gallery too drop off food donations and do a litterpick for 422 Community Hub. After a short loop of Whitworth Park, Jacob got to experience the Whitworth Lidl, full to the brim with students living nearby.

With donations bagged, we took a brisk walk towards Longsight and we managed to drop the donations in various bags to the reception, with only a few oats lost in transition.

While the rain stayed away, we used the Clean Up UK litterpickers with Keep MCR Tidy pink bags to scour the nearby streets for any litter we could find to give it a bit of an autumnal clean. We filled 3 sacks and found a few toothbrushes, a box, and a broken mop bucket along with the regular cans and bottles.

We ran home in our respective directions, with a few fireworks from local parks as a backdrop. All bags have been reported to Keep MCR Tidy and best of luck to Gloria in the Frankfurt marathon this weekend!

Great to meet Hamza for your first GoodGym Manchester session 👏

This evening, we met up outside the Whitworth Art Gallery for a light jog towards Longsight - the 422 Community Hub - with a rucksack full of food donations to give to their community pantry. This included UHT milk 🥛 tins of beans 🫘 tinned fish 🐟 tinned meat 🍖 rice pudding, coffee ☕️ and tinned fruit.

After passing onto reception, we used a couple of the litter pickers from the CleanUp UK box to do a litterpick of the surrounding streets. After a loop of the building, we headed down Birch Lane, only to discover a fly tipping litter grotspot that took most of our attention. We collected 8 refuse sacks plus 2 sacks containing 18 laughing gas canisters! 🚮

All rubbish was collated and reported to the council and Keep MCR Tidy for collection.

New task location tonight as we went to help out 422 Community Hub based in Longsight. The group carry out a range of community activities including a baby bank, cafe, pantry, meeting space, and local hub.

This evening we loaded our bags with a list of items the pantry was short of, including: tinned tuna, sweetcorn, baby wipes, tea, coffee, squash, and long-life milk. 4 or 5 carrier bags full of food to go towards the pantry over the school holidays.

After placing the items safely in the Keter box at the back of the centre, we used the Clean Up UK litterpicking supplies to clear up discarded litter from the surrounding streets. In just over an hour, we filled up 4 refuse sacks of rubbish, with lots having blown around in the wind. We placed them next to a public bin and reported them to Keep MCR Tidy for collection.

We'll likely be back at the community hub in the future to help with sorting baby bank items and for some painting, so keep an eye out for that.